It's now heading towards six months since the demise and rebirth of Sellaband, and an appropriate update to this blog is long overdue as a result.
Part of the reason for the delay in me putting my thoughts about the whole matter down in writing is hinted at if you went past my Twitter page in the couple of months after the initial bankruptcy. Shortly after the site went bankrupt I started having vision problems, and after a whole series of blood tests they've determined I'm not diabetic (at least not yet), but the reason for my ongoing inability to keep objects in focus at random intervals is still unknown, although they did find my vision in one eye has deteriorated significantly. I was forced to limit my time spent staring at things (particularly computer screens) as a result, so my original posting plans kind of went out the window.
Anyway to get back to the matter at hand, one of the things you ought to have noticed first is that the title of this blog has changed. No longer "The Sellaband knifelady" but merely "The knifelady". I felt it was the only appropriate action to take at the time, and at the moment my view on putting it back hasn't changed. So far, the "new Sellaband" management haven't managed to convince me the site remains worth supporting. Rather the case is more the opposite, particularly when I consider both what has (and hasn't) happened since my last post, and when I look at the current status of the site.
For those who have missed the action as it happens, here's a list of just some of the issues bothering people that were either present on the old site, or when the site reappeared. I'll take a better look at each one in detail in a moment.
1. Changes to Sellaband Terms and Conditions
2. Limited Edition CDs
3. "Leftover" artists
4. Revenue Share
5. "Inactive" artists
6. Discoveries
7. Non-deliveries
1. Changes to terms and conditions
The first big change after the new site came back up was a change in the Terms and Conditions of the site which meant it was no longer possible for believers to remove money from the site before an artist reached their target. This was a fundamental principle behind trusting the original Sellaband - the fact that if an artist left the site or just didn't go anywhere budgetwise you could take your money out at any time. The new T&C mean this has basically changed to a 2 week "cooling off" period. i.e. you can only remove money within the first two weeks of making the original deposit. After that, whilst you can remove your parts from an artist you can't then request that money back out of the site. Effectively it's stuck on the escrow account and you can only buy parts in another artist with it. A bit hard to understand why the escrow account is therefore still referred to as such, because it seems much less likely there could be any claim to this money by believers if the site goes bankrupt again given the new T&C. Most active believers seem to have withdrawn most or all of their remaining funds in the place as a result of this simple change. And yes, I was among them on that score. Two weeks is certainly not enough time for a site to recover after a bankruptcy, and when you're faced with the choice of getting the money within that two weeks or never being able to retrieve it again, most people made the obvious choice. With projects having no fixed time limit, the risk of buying parts which you can't retrieve has soared. Only one project to date has completed funding in less than a fortnight. In short, there's no incentive for believers to buy parts in Sellaband artists any more unless they are a few parts away from their target as the risks now outweigh the potential rewards.
Things don't look that much better from the artist side either. Artists who completed projects under the system where they could choose the budget and incentives, rather than being tied to the 50K deal are now finding they are having to collect the names and addresses of believers who funded them themselves, despite this information being in the Sellaband system. Believers also have to work at this, rather than it being automatic as the best Sellaband does is send a mail asking you to send your details to the artist. So far, two artists I believe in that fall into this category have completed their projects with Sellaband, and I've had to chase up BOTH myself in an attempt to get my CDs (one received so far, the other I'll have to wait until at least the end of August for as the artist is away). Compared to the old Sellaband system, if this is showing the start of a trend it's highly disturbing - I've had no such problems when Sellaband rather than the artist has been the sender for a completed project in the past.
The overall feel given off is now one of the greedy middleman who takes a percentage of the money believers deposit up-front as admin fee, plus a further 10% of the project amount if the project completes, yet does nothing in return for the artist as they are left to organise themselves and deliver the project to believers. Matthew Ebel's reason for leaving the site therefore looks spot on - what is the point of using a middleman if you still have to do all the work yourself?
Sellaband say their reason for the change is because the site was not legal due to the fact you could remove money at any time. Interestingly, the spin-off project of one of the original founders Africa Unsigned, is still running and still offers believers the chance to remove their money at any time. What is legal and what is not? Are Sellaband's reasons genuine or are believers just being fed an excuse for this change in the T&C? The jury is still out on this one.
2. Limited Edition CDs
To add insult to injury on the believers side, Sellaband then came up with a solution to the LE Cds that believers had left with them to be sold via the shop. Quite simply put, they asked believers to either pay for the shipping and have them all sent home or basically treat them as a donation. i.e. they would ask the artists in question if they wanted to pay the shipping to have the CDs sent to them instead. If nobody wanted to pay this postage Sellaband were planning on using them for promotion. Yes, that's correct. Either you had to pay to get the CDs you already paid for sent to you or or they would be given away and you wouldn't receive a penny for what was actually your property. After an outcry, it seems someone came forward to offer free storage for the remaining CDs but several believers are so sick to death of the place they've actually paid to have their remaining CDs sent home, hence severing the last of their ties with the place and their likelihood to even visit again, never mind spend money. Not a good start for the new management.
Despite this backtracking, the issue still isn't resolved. Even though Sellaband have turned round and said, "OK, the CDs can still be kept with us for free and sold in the shop", in actual fact not a single artist is showing LE CDs as being available to buy, even though there are still definitely a large number available for most of the artists in question.
There are also a number of legacy issues to worry believers which have still not been sorted out. Some of these have been discussed on the Sellaband forums, but there are a number that appear to have been overlooked.
3. "Leftover" artists
Firstly there are a number of questions regarding the "leftover" artists from 2008. For those not in the know, there are a number of artists who completed their funding back in 2008 but no CD has yet been seen, despite the 6 month (later changed to 9 month, and more recently in the new T&C 12 months) required for completion of the project. In some cases we know there have been delays due to the "old" Sellaband being very slow in bill paying, but only one of the artists in question is currently looking close to releasing a CD, as believers have finally been asked how many CDs they want sent home. There is also a nice "caveat emptor" in the message from Sellaband which basically states that you can have all CDs sent home as soon as they are available for free, but if you choose to leave them in the shop and then later change your mind, you'll have to pay the postage. Given the lack of Limited Edition CDs actually available in the Sellaband shop (as I've already mentioned) it will be interesting to see how believers react to this one.
But, let's not forget that things are not simple any more. As the site went bankrupt, artists were entitled to release themselves from their contracts with the site and reclaim their masters. What this means for artists who haven't even produced a CD yet is unclear. Do they even have to produce a CD any more? Do they have to sign a completely new contract? And from those few questions, I'm sure you can figure out a flood more that come to mind. The management for Clemence have already asked for her albums and downloads to be removed from the Sellaband shop (this has been done), and this in turn raises questions about the remaining LE CDs believers have left with Sellaband for this artist to be sold in Sellaband's shop.
We then have the case of the post-2008-but-pre-bankruptcy artists. Under Sellaband's incentive system, there were things like publishing share as well as revenue share included, along with vouchers for half price CD copies from the shop. So let's go back to that magic question about the site going bankrupt and artists being entitled to release themselves from their contracts and stop and consider the implications for the revenue and publishing shares for believers. If an artist walks away, is the reality that the contract with believers has been broken too? i.e. that believers will never see any revenue share or publishing from these artists?
One artist falling into this category is Slim Void. At the time of writing, believers have still not received anything from this artist, despite tracks being available to download since April. None of the promised CDs, no discount vouchers - nothing. Nor has there been any announcement as to when these might be expected. A visit to their page merely reveals a plan which states "All done from our side" and no real enlightenment from the comments on their wall either.
4. Revenue Share
But further to the comments I've already made about revenue share, there is of course the fact that this same problem applies to virtually every artist who has ever raised a budget on Sellaband. Nemesea chose not to sign up to the 5 year deal that was offered when artists were given a choice back at the first main T&C change in 2009, and they were out of their 2 year deal period when the site went bankrupt, but for other artists the question of what happens with the revenue shares for believers remains.
Sellaband have recently sorted out the transferring money part at least, meaning the first payment this year to believers has finally been made. However I expect some will be confused by the new 2-tier balance system, where the "old" balance contains money that cannot be removed from Sellaband and you have a second balance (called the revenue balance) with a choice of paying out to Paypal, or transferring to the "old" balance to spend. It's also unclear whether money transferred from the revenue balance to the other is subject to the 2-week "cooling off" period in the T&C from the date you choose to do the transfer, or whether this is immediately locked and cannot be removed. Anyone intending to leave money in the site in the hopes of buying a part later will therefore probably leave this in the revenue balance if they're smart. Though some would say the smarter option is to remove the money altogether.
5. Inactive artists
Obviously the changes to the Terms and Conditions sparked a number of artists who wanted to leave the site. Additionally, regular readers of my blog will know I've been complaining on and off since April 2007 about the fact that Sellaband just don't delete profiles of artists that have left the site. It probably will therefore come as no surprise that there has been very little "tidying up" of inactive profiles since the bankruptcy, covering artists in both these categories. In fact, you don't have to look very hard to find profiles of artists stating in their Sellaband profiles they are "leaving Sellaband" but still showing within the top 100 artists on the site. Whilst Sellaband is putting out some nice "pretty" updates to its website, such as a twitter-style activity feed, it seems that the real issues with the site that could be sorted, such as this one, continue to be as overlooked by the new management as they were with the old.
6. Discoveries
In addition to the obvious problems, there are also some worrying stories beginning to emerge. Reports that the curator handling the bankruptcy is looking into a $300,000 discrepancy in the escrow account as part of that process have been coming to light. Given this represents the equivalent of 6 projects under the original Sellaband T&C (and more than 10% of completed projects so far) it's quite a worrying figure and doesn't inspire confidence, particularly when combined with the other issues floating around.
The other thing discovered has been the existence of "special contracts". In fact, based on the responses to the forum thread, it seems the "special contract" rather than the "standard contract" could perhaps be considered more the norm. The suggestion here, is that the set of T&C artists agree to when they sign up does NOT in fact form the basis of the contract they sign on completion of their budget. Rather than merely a rubber-stamp approval to confirm on the conditions they originally signed to, it would appear contracts have in fact been written up and agreed on an individual basis for many artists in the past after the target has been reached, without believers being aware of this fact. How many of these "special contracts" also have bearing on the next section is unclear
7. Non-deliveries
The rate of non-delivery of promises has actually been quite shocking. Some of the cases are down to artists quite simply promising to tour and promote so that you WILL get a return on investment, and hence convincing believers to buy parts. There are however a number of cases that could be considered more serious than this. Here's just a few of the highlights.
Second Person's album was essentially a concept album consisting of 5 songs with 5 associated videos that all believers would receive. The first video was released along with the album, but the other 4 have never seen the light of day. Second Person cancelled their second Sellaband project a while back because the members "wanted time off to deal with their solo projects", so it is still unknown if/when the rest of these promised videos will ever appear.
Clemence did a 7 song album for believers, however it was then revealed she had gone on to record a further number of songs and would be releasing a CD with a record label containing BOTH these songs and the songs from her Sellaband project. Essentially, purchasers of that CD would get a double album with 14 songs for the same price that they could buy her 7 song album from Sellaband. There was an outcry. Sellaband promised believers they had agreed a deal with Clemence and believers would also get a copy of the other album for free. No prizes for guessing this has never been seen.
AIOIA were another concept base. In this case believers were promised 3 CDs about this "alien culture". The Sellaband funding would be used for one of these albums, one was already being produced and separate funding would be achieved for the third. However the poster of this information subsequently fell out with the artist and apparently various legal actions ensued. As one of those not interested in this particular project, I have no idea what believers eventually received, but judging by the large number of comments on the forum at the time, it certainly wasn't what was promised and believers weren't happy about it.
What now?
So in summary then, despite the fact there are artists continuing to crawl through to targets, the Sellaband landscape actually looks quite bleak. Too many issues remain as big red flags with the system with no clue as to when they will be resolved, and given past performance of artists who have been left unregulated it's still impossible to recommend Sellaband to others nearly six months down the line. Add to this the fact there are other sites out there offering artists exactly the same service under better conditions for both artists and believers and it's clear that without some radical changes soon to address the situation, the only way will be down into another bankruptcy.
As a result, like others I'm waiting to see what Sellaband themselves come up with before I consider putting any money into the site in future. Quite simply there are better choices around. Also believer confidence has been dented too heavily for most existing ones to want to support the place at the moment. Again, another fundamental principle behind the original Sellaband applies here - the fact that they had industry professional experts who would control the process, rather than you feeling you were being asked to give your money to any tom, dick or harry you'd never heard of before that came along is one of the things that gave people confidence to join the site. History has proven somewhat different to this and with artists now left in complete control and Sellaband clearly stating in their T&C they won't be responsible, the question becomes how can you know which artists you should trust? And with existing believers (including me) giving off no-confidence vibes, what chance is there for new blood to be brought into the site?
The issue of non-delivery also has wider implications for fan-funding. I'll be exploring that in two posts time, when I take a look at what lessons there are to be learned based on my Sellaband experiences and revealing why Sellaband as it currently stands and similar services could be definitely proved as obsolete and unnecessary in just over 12 months from now. Anyone interested in fan-funding or the concept of 1000 true fans should definitely not miss this one.
For my next post though, I'll be looking at some of the artists I've encountered on Sellaband. Some are still around the place and some have most definitely moved on, but all have one thing in common - they are ones I am still following. Everyone has their "artist gems" from the site and these are mine. Find out who I'm following and the story behind why next time around.
Sunday, 1 August 2010
Tuesday, 23 February 2010
Sellaband goes bankrupt
If there's one thing I hate, it's the regularity with which my alarm bells tend to be right. I told you in my February hatchet day post that I'd been rattled out of my comfort zone and it seems the calm has ended and the predicted storm has arrived in the form of Sellaband declaring bankruptcy. Not necessarily what I was thinking of at the time I wrote my original comments, but also a possibility that was in the back of my mind.
Obviously today's announcement affects this blog in a big way, however I'll be waiting for the dust to settle before making a full announcement. I do aim to post some time around the expected March "hatchet day" however with an initial set of thoughts based on how things develop between now and then. I suspect that will still be too soon for a full announcement though.
In the meantime, if you did stumble over this blog, or even came here deliberately looking for more information than can be found by the simple statement on the Sellaband homepage, you might like to know I've reopened a section of the forum I used to run before Sellaband had one of their own. So if you're looking for information, or even to reconnect with other Sellaband artists and believers you'll find them at sellaband.proboards.com. If you had an account there in the old days and didn't delete it, your old login details are still valid, otherwise you'll need to register in order to post (you won't if you just want to read).
Just remember I am unofficial and don't/have never worked for Sellaband, so I don't have an inside line to what exactly is going on - this is more an attempt to give what's left of the community a port in the storm and the opportunity to communicate what they know with each other until the (any?) future of the site becomes clear. So just remember to play nice over there, because you don't want my knives after you! ;-)
Obviously today's announcement affects this blog in a big way, however I'll be waiting for the dust to settle before making a full announcement. I do aim to post some time around the expected March "hatchet day" however with an initial set of thoughts based on how things develop between now and then. I suspect that will still be too soon for a full announcement though.
In the meantime, if you did stumble over this blog, or even came here deliberately looking for more information than can be found by the simple statement on the Sellaband homepage, you might like to know I've reopened a section of the forum I used to run before Sellaband had one of their own. So if you're looking for information, or even to reconnect with other Sellaband artists and believers you'll find them at sellaband.proboards.com. If you had an account there in the old days and didn't delete it, your old login details are still valid, otherwise you'll need to register in order to post (you won't if you just want to read).
Just remember I am unofficial and don't/have never worked for Sellaband, so I don't have an inside line to what exactly is going on - this is more an attempt to give what's left of the community a port in the storm and the opportunity to communicate what they know with each other until the (any?) future of the site becomes clear. So just remember to play nice over there, because you don't want my knives after you! ;-)
Monday, 1 February 2010
February 2010 hatchet day
Welcome to the new hatchet day posts. Now my quest to do some serious sorting out of parts in artists is mostly done, it's time to get back to something resembling normal service. However, expect a very important announcement on that score later in this post.
Under the hatchet
As I've been dealing with my parts list in general in previous posts, the normal hatchet process has been ignored. Now I'm back in full force, meaning that the 3 month rule is back in effect. i.e. this time around, if I can't find evidence that an artist has been seen on Sellaband on or after 1st November 2009 then out comes my knife. In the case of artists on my following list it means they get removed and in the case of artists on my belief list it means that some or all of the parts get removed.
However there is now one big change from my previous behaviour of immediately putting any parts removed into another artist - this won't be happening unless the new artist is over 50% in budget. Instead the part(s) will remain on my balance until one of two things happens. Either an artist I'm interested in buying (more) parts in passes the 50% requirement, or sufficient time passes such that the money on my balance looks like it's increasing with no sign of a home coming along (in which case it will get removed from the Sellaband system).
So this month sees me drop down to one part in The Quahaugs and remove my part in TheLights as a result of no evidence they've been seen November or later. I've also had a big tidy out in my following list and have removed everyone who is still fundraising that doesn't meet that date requirement either.
Artists in danger of losing parts next month due to my inactivity rules are as follows:
The Quahaugs is obviously in danger of losing my last remaining part and dropping back to a following list alone. All other artists on my belief list except Leave have been seen in December (and the vast majority in January) and so are already safe. And as I've already said, I'll be leaving that part where it is until at least April based on information gained during my transition period.
As you can probably guess, there's now a change to my parts buying in general. Artists are currently moving so slowly on Sellaband at present that I've decided I won't be buying parts in new projects that I'm interested in for the forseeable future unless the artist a) reaches at least 50% in budget or b) gives me a very good reason that convinces me to jump in earlier (including but not limited to reasons such as their music really connects with me, or they obviously have a lot of existing fans arriving too). I'll be reviewing the situation regularly, but until/unless things improve with regard to new believers getting actively involved with the site, I'll now only be following, rather than buying early.
Following
Angie Arsenault is back as a custom artist with a promotion budget of $25,000. I have to admit I'm not a fan of projects such as this. In Angie's case you could say there was no choice in the matter as her album was produced under a different set of conditions for the site, but to separate out a promotion budget from the project it is associated with and expect to raise it separately is something I think is completely wrong in general. To my mind one of two situations should apply - either the budget being raised includes an allowance for promotion, or the artist uses the money they've "saved" by the fact they didn't have to stump up the recording costs themselves to put towards their promotion instead.
Let's face it. If you raise a budget for producing an album, there is no guarantee you will be able to raise the money for a separate promotion budget for that album to coincide with its release (which is what you need). It's basically a totally new project. And unless there is something to tempt those who put funds into the album creation itself to buy parts in the promotion budget as well, it basically feels like you're being asked to pay for the album twice when the promotion is done separately. And if your promotion budget only gets completed after the album, then it's of no use because most of the interest will have evaporated to follow something more current. Don't get me wrong, like many others I think there ought to be some promotion cost somewhere in the equation rather than just a product, particularly when revenue share is involved. I just happen to think that the way many people are trying to do this at present is the wrong one. Even Hind's promotion budget appears to be struggling (at least relative to the fundraising for the album itself), although it's unclear whether this is related to whether she has reached the majority of the interested already or not, or whether it is really the case that people just don't want to pay twice when there really isn't anything new or exciting on offer when you compare it with what was offered for the first project.
So in Angie's case the jury is currently out. Whilst there does appear to be a digital download of something different for your $10, we're back to the fact that it's a digital download of 5 tracks, which doesn't set me personally alive with enthusiasm. So I'll only be following for the time being - this one is currently going to be a very late decision I think.
Ivyrise have a rather interesting blog which basically centres around the theme that the band appears to be trying to drum up interest for their music by basically finding gigs of well known musicians and handing out their CDs to the people waiting in line. So far this effort of street promotion doesn't appear to have attracted much in the way of interested people to support them on Sellaband though. Maybe it's an idea to start sticking something about your Sellaband profile in the CD insert boys? Given they're looking for a 100K budget (ouch!) I have a feeling they're getting a bit overambitious, but the single track on their profile suggests they could be well worth it, if they can first drum up some interest from outside.
Alexis Blue have got a rather infectious chorus on the single profile song they have. Would love to hear some more from these guys as I think there's definitely some potential here.
Junkus Minor grabbed my interest, despite being somewhat atypical of what I normally listen to from Finland. Anyone for some country rock? Actually, having thought about it, they sound like they'd probably be right at home on Laulava Sydän (that's the name of a TV show in Finland for those who were wondering).
All The Fires also have my interest musically but only seem to be offering a download rather than a CD.
Musical stories
Remember I mentioned The Black Doves a few blog posts back and the fact they had left a blog on their page saying they were off to Kickstarter to fund an album and were already over the $1,000 mark? I've been keeping an eye on that project and it appears it failed to reach its $25,000 target - in fact raising only $1,250 by the time the deadline was up. Whilst this is still more than 10 times the amount of their funding on Sellaband at the point they announced they were leaving, it's still interesting to see that their success level in getting support over there isn't really any better either. I'll be interested to see if they come back here, given their profile still exists.
Another artist off to another site is Electric Eel Shock who decided not to come back to Sellaband for a second round, but rather to take their next project elsewhere. Ironically the place they've chosen is the place at the top of the list I was thinking of when I mentioned that I thought Sellaband was now at a disadvantage compared to some other funding sites out there because it had no set time limit for projects and it takes money up front. It will be interesting to see if they can raise their full budget on there, or how much of their success on Sellaband was due to hype.
Blister sent me a message saying they are looking at possibly reducing their budget significantly, but I haven't had any further information on if/when that is likely to take place.
Chris Jones sneaks very quietly out of Sellaband leaving a very interesting issue in his wake. You'll remember from a previous blog post that I was reluctant to buy a part because his budget was in Euros and we had no idea how the currency conversion was going to be handled. Well for those who missed the thread on the forum, with him leaving we just found out. Currency conversion rate does apply to the money you get back as well as the money you spend, as one believer got 52 cents less credited to their balance than the figure that had been removed from it when they bought their one part. So be warned. This confirmation that you're relying on the chance of the exchange rate as well as the chance of the artist reaching their budget makes artists whose budgets aren't in dollars even less attractive to me, although it does make me wonder if someone will start speculating on the exchange rate by buying and removing parts in euro artists to try and increase their balance.
If you're awake, you'll notice I've now added in a link to Twitter on the right hand side of the blog (below the About me section). Despite the fact I'm not really a fan of the thing due to the encouragement of use of URL shorteners, getting an account started properly on there has been well overdue. I'll be tweeting as soon as my blog goes live every month, so here's yet another way to follow me as well as possibly pick up on some of my own unusual interests. And if you're wondering why I consider URL shorteners a real evil, well I guess I shouldn't complain really, because they're likely to keep my husband gainfully employed removing malware from machines. So much for telling people to check out where a link is going to take them before they click on it (potentially exposing their computer to something nasty) when a URL shortener makes it impossible to know where you're going until you get there. Yes folks, I expect the likes of Twitter to be increasingly blamed for a surge in phishing and other attacks, purely due to the behaviour it encourages.
I'm keeping a watchful eye on Pim's new project Africa Unsigned. I haven't signed up myself, but I already see an awful lot of names I recognise buying parts on there, including some who have basically said they've washed their hands of the Sellaband site (a fact I find interesting in itself). The site itself is closer to the previous incarnation of the Sellaband website - just the parts cost is $1 with $10,000 budget required and there is no CD just a digital download of a minimum of 3 tracks. Additionally, it would appear there is a time limit for raising funds as well as the fact the artists appear to have (so far) been selected by a panel in order to get a spot on the site in the first place. Personally I'm not a fan of African music in general, but I wouldn't necessarily rule out finding something on there some day, so I might be taking a peek at it from time to time to see how things are going. I'm also not yet convinced it even has the potential to be viable given western music tastes - it will be interesting to see how much promotion goes into it for one.
I've got a plan
Welcome to this month's selection of the good, the bad and the just plain ugly in plans from artists recently signing up or changing what they have to offer.
This month most of my interest has been taken up with artists reducing budget. Lorraine Jones already appears to have changed hers despite the fact her plan states the sum is provisional. As a result I'll be waiting to see what happens before deciding whether or not to buy back into her - as I've said before inconsistent plans worry me.
Maitreya decides to radically reduce his budget in the hopes of getting a tour budget together before July when it's needed. I won't be joining in with this one because I don't like rap, but given how quiet the site has gone, I'm wondering whether he is going to find the 150 ticket buyers he's looking for through Sellaband. Getting actual dates up might actually help his cause.
John C Fraser also reduces budget again in the hopes of getting a CD funded by April and seems to be getting quite a bit of interest as a result, meaning he's now raised nearly 50% of his new budget. Will I increase my own parts? I'm not sure as yet, due at least in part to that announcement I'll be making later.
Is it me or does the "help I'm lost" section just keep getting crazier? Some real gems turned up in just the last fortnight, some of which are below.
Have we got an Africa Unsigned reject on our hands? Or someone who just can't read? Actually Vini Gawa can't even be the former unless my geography is off as well, but with a plan based round raising $10,000 with $1 parts he looks like he's not got the idea that Sellaband uses a $10 part price at all. Either that or he should actually be a custom artist and Sellaband have just forgotten to set his profile up correctly.
I needed an English translation last month and it looks like I need one again this month. Say hello to Beach Bum Ben whose plan reads "I will release one full song and two half songs (I don't feel totally safe releasing full songs onto the web). When I reach my goal I will record in Hawaii." Add to this the fact he's only offering a download (no CD) and is offering to share all songs via mp3 for 3 parts and.. well.. are you as confused as me?
I love the way artists are still using the site purely as a way to promote themselves rather than actually trying to fundraise on it (what the site's intended use is now) Vadim seems to be just one such example of this given his plan reads "my goal is to get promoted on this website and get the music labels and producers interested in me! I need You support! :)"
And finally, the usual selection of one-liners. Now again want to "Play everywhere!". Nichelle Colvin wants to be "the biggest artist ever" and Minoti would like "To make good music for everyone to enjoy."
The real Sellaband success story
I promised you this story in my last blog post. It all starts because I had spotted something which looked vaguely familiar some time before Christmas, but couldn't quite place where I'd seen it before. I kind of forgot about it, but when searching for something completely unrelated I came across the following PM I received way back on May 18th 2007. (spelling errors and all)
You're probably having a very good laugh at this point, or indeed even wondering what this message has to do with anything. I don't know if any other believers received an identical message at that same time from this very clueless sounding artist, or just their own tailormade version. What I can tell you though is that the artist joined the ranks of the ignored/unfunded as far as believers were concerned (as you can probably guess) and I'm guessing the profile itself got deleted due to inactivity back when Sellaband actually had a clearout. I do know the artist in question apparently got some interest from an indie label and subsequently released an album.
But you'll still be wondering what even this has to do with anything unless you've been sharp enough to spot the same thing I did. So let me enlighten you. You see, the sender of that message has remained on Sellaband and obviously learnt quite a bit just by quietly watching it in the intervening years. How do I know this? Because their current project has just successfully raised a budget on Sellaband at a time when parts aren't selling particularly well. So say hello to Eric from Epyllion next time you see him, because I regard this conversion from completely clueless to creating the strategy to successfully raise a budget (and in a relatively short time after signing up the new project too) as the real Sellaband success story out there. Let's see if they manage to confirm that further by releasing their album in March or April as well. And who knows, maybe in another 3 years we might be looking at a real contender for the "outside success story" I suspect many of you were hoping this would be. Given the change I've seen demonstrated here, I'd say don't rule out that possibility just yet.
So for all you clueless artists out there, there is a big lesson to be learnt here. Wake up, get some advice and use it and get serious and who knows, you too could actually successfully raise some money on Sellaband.
Oh and if you were wondering what it was I originally spotted, have a look in the biography section of Epyllion's profile. I thought there was an artist name in there that looked familiar, and if you cross-reference it with the PM I quoted above, you'll find the confirmation of that thought.
Sellaband
And so to that announcement I promised you earlier. As you might have guessed from previous blog posts and the changes I've mentioned with regard to parts buying earlier in this thread, I've decided to officially scale back my activities on Sellaband. The final straw on that score came this past month as a result of the Nearfield thread on the forum. I'd already been unsettled by Mandyleigh's blog at the start of the month, and as I've mentioned so many times you're probably sick to death of it by now, I'm not happy with the fact Sellaband don't even appear to be enforcing their own T&C and doing even the most basic of reality checks on artist plans. Answering questions on the support site (using the "feedback" link) appears to have virtually stopped, and for there to be complete silence from both an artist and Sellaband itself on the subject raised by the Nearfield thread has made me start to wonder if there's something going off in the background. Maybe even something with legal implications. And as I'm writing this blog, Mandyleigh starts a thread on the forum with the followup to the link I just gave you. It's unclear what the true situation behind this one is, but it seems it already serves to reinforce what I've already been saying re: artist education, advice etc - if you want to create a "new music industry" you first have to be able to educate in all aspects of the existing one or someone is going to walk straight into a problem through inexperience. As I said on the forum, you don't give a five year old the car keys and expect him to drive himself to school.
So maybe I'm just shooting at shadows, but it's almost like an air of "the calm before the storm" is developing. And if there is a storm developing out there about something, the signs are it's going to make previous storms about Sellaband look like a light drizzle. It's too quiet out there at the moment in more ways than one, and that's rattled me outside my comfort zone.
But what does this mean both for me and this blog? Well for starters, I'm going to withdraw pretty much all the money remaining on my Sellaband balance from the site. I REALLY don't like what I'm seeing (or in some cases not seeing) at present, so the loose money is coming out. I will however be continuing the blog (and hatchet day) and I will be continuing to look for music on the site, although I won't be buying any more parts unless it's over 50% in budget and moving significantly forwards. I'll be updating my "about me" in the next few days to reflect that. Call me the eternal optimist, or even call me crazy, but I still have hopes Sellaband will get their act together and realise what it is that has made them different to other sites out there in the past, and learn how to use that to their advantage.
So at this point I can only hope there aren't too many legacy problems around, and the site will still be around for this blog post next month. So hopefully I'll see you then and we'll see what's happened in the meantime.
Under the hatchet
As I've been dealing with my parts list in general in previous posts, the normal hatchet process has been ignored. Now I'm back in full force, meaning that the 3 month rule is back in effect. i.e. this time around, if I can't find evidence that an artist has been seen on Sellaband on or after 1st November 2009 then out comes my knife. In the case of artists on my following list it means they get removed and in the case of artists on my belief list it means that some or all of the parts get removed.
However there is now one big change from my previous behaviour of immediately putting any parts removed into another artist - this won't be happening unless the new artist is over 50% in budget. Instead the part(s) will remain on my balance until one of two things happens. Either an artist I'm interested in buying (more) parts in passes the 50% requirement, or sufficient time passes such that the money on my balance looks like it's increasing with no sign of a home coming along (in which case it will get removed from the Sellaband system).
So this month sees me drop down to one part in The Quahaugs and remove my part in TheLights as a result of no evidence they've been seen November or later. I've also had a big tidy out in my following list and have removed everyone who is still fundraising that doesn't meet that date requirement either.
Artists in danger of losing parts next month due to my inactivity rules are as follows:
The Quahaugs is obviously in danger of losing my last remaining part and dropping back to a following list alone. All other artists on my belief list except Leave have been seen in December (and the vast majority in January) and so are already safe. And as I've already said, I'll be leaving that part where it is until at least April based on information gained during my transition period.
As you can probably guess, there's now a change to my parts buying in general. Artists are currently moving so slowly on Sellaband at present that I've decided I won't be buying parts in new projects that I'm interested in for the forseeable future unless the artist a) reaches at least 50% in budget or b) gives me a very good reason that convinces me to jump in earlier (including but not limited to reasons such as their music really connects with me, or they obviously have a lot of existing fans arriving too). I'll be reviewing the situation regularly, but until/unless things improve with regard to new believers getting actively involved with the site, I'll now only be following, rather than buying early.
Following
Angie Arsenault is back as a custom artist with a promotion budget of $25,000. I have to admit I'm not a fan of projects such as this. In Angie's case you could say there was no choice in the matter as her album was produced under a different set of conditions for the site, but to separate out a promotion budget from the project it is associated with and expect to raise it separately is something I think is completely wrong in general. To my mind one of two situations should apply - either the budget being raised includes an allowance for promotion, or the artist uses the money they've "saved" by the fact they didn't have to stump up the recording costs themselves to put towards their promotion instead.
Let's face it. If you raise a budget for producing an album, there is no guarantee you will be able to raise the money for a separate promotion budget for that album to coincide with its release (which is what you need). It's basically a totally new project. And unless there is something to tempt those who put funds into the album creation itself to buy parts in the promotion budget as well, it basically feels like you're being asked to pay for the album twice when the promotion is done separately. And if your promotion budget only gets completed after the album, then it's of no use because most of the interest will have evaporated to follow something more current. Don't get me wrong, like many others I think there ought to be some promotion cost somewhere in the equation rather than just a product, particularly when revenue share is involved. I just happen to think that the way many people are trying to do this at present is the wrong one. Even Hind's promotion budget appears to be struggling (at least relative to the fundraising for the album itself), although it's unclear whether this is related to whether she has reached the majority of the interested already or not, or whether it is really the case that people just don't want to pay twice when there really isn't anything new or exciting on offer when you compare it with what was offered for the first project.
So in Angie's case the jury is currently out. Whilst there does appear to be a digital download of something different for your $10, we're back to the fact that it's a digital download of 5 tracks, which doesn't set me personally alive with enthusiasm. So I'll only be following for the time being - this one is currently going to be a very late decision I think.
Ivyrise have a rather interesting blog which basically centres around the theme that the band appears to be trying to drum up interest for their music by basically finding gigs of well known musicians and handing out their CDs to the people waiting in line. So far this effort of street promotion doesn't appear to have attracted much in the way of interested people to support them on Sellaband though. Maybe it's an idea to start sticking something about your Sellaband profile in the CD insert boys? Given they're looking for a 100K budget (ouch!) I have a feeling they're getting a bit overambitious, but the single track on their profile suggests they could be well worth it, if they can first drum up some interest from outside.
Alexis Blue have got a rather infectious chorus on the single profile song they have. Would love to hear some more from these guys as I think there's definitely some potential here.
Junkus Minor grabbed my interest, despite being somewhat atypical of what I normally listen to from Finland. Anyone for some country rock? Actually, having thought about it, they sound like they'd probably be right at home on Laulava Sydän (that's the name of a TV show in Finland for those who were wondering).
All The Fires also have my interest musically but only seem to be offering a download rather than a CD.
Musical stories
Remember I mentioned The Black Doves a few blog posts back and the fact they had left a blog on their page saying they were off to Kickstarter to fund an album and were already over the $1,000 mark? I've been keeping an eye on that project and it appears it failed to reach its $25,000 target - in fact raising only $1,250 by the time the deadline was up. Whilst this is still more than 10 times the amount of their funding on Sellaband at the point they announced they were leaving, it's still interesting to see that their success level in getting support over there isn't really any better either. I'll be interested to see if they come back here, given their profile still exists.
Another artist off to another site is Electric Eel Shock who decided not to come back to Sellaband for a second round, but rather to take their next project elsewhere. Ironically the place they've chosen is the place at the top of the list I was thinking of when I mentioned that I thought Sellaband was now at a disadvantage compared to some other funding sites out there because it had no set time limit for projects and it takes money up front. It will be interesting to see if they can raise their full budget on there, or how much of their success on Sellaband was due to hype.
Blister sent me a message saying they are looking at possibly reducing their budget significantly, but I haven't had any further information on if/when that is likely to take place.
Chris Jones sneaks very quietly out of Sellaband leaving a very interesting issue in his wake. You'll remember from a previous blog post that I was reluctant to buy a part because his budget was in Euros and we had no idea how the currency conversion was going to be handled. Well for those who missed the thread on the forum, with him leaving we just found out. Currency conversion rate does apply to the money you get back as well as the money you spend, as one believer got 52 cents less credited to their balance than the figure that had been removed from it when they bought their one part. So be warned. This confirmation that you're relying on the chance of the exchange rate as well as the chance of the artist reaching their budget makes artists whose budgets aren't in dollars even less attractive to me, although it does make me wonder if someone will start speculating on the exchange rate by buying and removing parts in euro artists to try and increase their balance.
If you're awake, you'll notice I've now added in a link to Twitter on the right hand side of the blog (below the About me section). Despite the fact I'm not really a fan of the thing due to the encouragement of use of URL shorteners, getting an account started properly on there has been well overdue. I'll be tweeting as soon as my blog goes live every month, so here's yet another way to follow me as well as possibly pick up on some of my own unusual interests. And if you're wondering why I consider URL shorteners a real evil, well I guess I shouldn't complain really, because they're likely to keep my husband gainfully employed removing malware from machines. So much for telling people to check out where a link is going to take them before they click on it (potentially exposing their computer to something nasty) when a URL shortener makes it impossible to know where you're going until you get there. Yes folks, I expect the likes of Twitter to be increasingly blamed for a surge in phishing and other attacks, purely due to the behaviour it encourages.
I'm keeping a watchful eye on Pim's new project Africa Unsigned. I haven't signed up myself, but I already see an awful lot of names I recognise buying parts on there, including some who have basically said they've washed their hands of the Sellaband site (a fact I find interesting in itself). The site itself is closer to the previous incarnation of the Sellaband website - just the parts cost is $1 with $10,000 budget required and there is no CD just a digital download of a minimum of 3 tracks. Additionally, it would appear there is a time limit for raising funds as well as the fact the artists appear to have (so far) been selected by a panel in order to get a spot on the site in the first place. Personally I'm not a fan of African music in general, but I wouldn't necessarily rule out finding something on there some day, so I might be taking a peek at it from time to time to see how things are going. I'm also not yet convinced it even has the potential to be viable given western music tastes - it will be interesting to see how much promotion goes into it for one.
I've got a plan
Welcome to this month's selection of the good, the bad and the just plain ugly in plans from artists recently signing up or changing what they have to offer.
This month most of my interest has been taken up with artists reducing budget. Lorraine Jones already appears to have changed hers despite the fact her plan states the sum is provisional. As a result I'll be waiting to see what happens before deciding whether or not to buy back into her - as I've said before inconsistent plans worry me.
Maitreya decides to radically reduce his budget in the hopes of getting a tour budget together before July when it's needed. I won't be joining in with this one because I don't like rap, but given how quiet the site has gone, I'm wondering whether he is going to find the 150 ticket buyers he's looking for through Sellaband. Getting actual dates up might actually help his cause.
John C Fraser also reduces budget again in the hopes of getting a CD funded by April and seems to be getting quite a bit of interest as a result, meaning he's now raised nearly 50% of his new budget. Will I increase my own parts? I'm not sure as yet, due at least in part to that announcement I'll be making later.
Is it me or does the "help I'm lost" section just keep getting crazier? Some real gems turned up in just the last fortnight, some of which are below.
Have we got an Africa Unsigned reject on our hands? Or someone who just can't read? Actually Vini Gawa can't even be the former unless my geography is off as well, but with a plan based round raising $10,000 with $1 parts he looks like he's not got the idea that Sellaband uses a $10 part price at all. Either that or he should actually be a custom artist and Sellaband have just forgotten to set his profile up correctly.
I needed an English translation last month and it looks like I need one again this month. Say hello to Beach Bum Ben whose plan reads "I will release one full song and two half songs (I don't feel totally safe releasing full songs onto the web). When I reach my goal I will record in Hawaii." Add to this the fact he's only offering a download (no CD) and is offering to share all songs via mp3 for 3 parts and.. well.. are you as confused as me?
I love the way artists are still using the site purely as a way to promote themselves rather than actually trying to fundraise on it (what the site's intended use is now) Vadim seems to be just one such example of this given his plan reads "my goal is to get promoted on this website and get the music labels and producers interested in me! I need You support! :)"
And finally, the usual selection of one-liners. Now again want to "Play everywhere!". Nichelle Colvin wants to be "the biggest artist ever" and Minoti would like "To make good music for everyone to enjoy."
The real Sellaband success story
I promised you this story in my last blog post. It all starts because I had spotted something which looked vaguely familiar some time before Christmas, but couldn't quite place where I'd seen it before. I kind of forgot about it, but when searching for something completely unrelated I came across the following PM I received way back on May 18th 2007. (spelling errors and all)
you obiously have great taste!
I can tell by the money you've invested so far on this.
If we could get one or two of your shares, we'd obviously be enternally grateful! We'll make it to $50,000 i'm sure!
http://www.sellaband.com/twelve34 - if anything, let me know what you think!
You're probably having a very good laugh at this point, or indeed even wondering what this message has to do with anything. I don't know if any other believers received an identical message at that same time from this very clueless sounding artist, or just their own tailormade version. What I can tell you though is that the artist joined the ranks of the ignored/unfunded as far as believers were concerned (as you can probably guess) and I'm guessing the profile itself got deleted due to inactivity back when Sellaband actually had a clearout. I do know the artist in question apparently got some interest from an indie label and subsequently released an album.
But you'll still be wondering what even this has to do with anything unless you've been sharp enough to spot the same thing I did. So let me enlighten you. You see, the sender of that message has remained on Sellaband and obviously learnt quite a bit just by quietly watching it in the intervening years. How do I know this? Because their current project has just successfully raised a budget on Sellaband at a time when parts aren't selling particularly well. So say hello to Eric from Epyllion next time you see him, because I regard this conversion from completely clueless to creating the strategy to successfully raise a budget (and in a relatively short time after signing up the new project too) as the real Sellaband success story out there. Let's see if they manage to confirm that further by releasing their album in March or April as well. And who knows, maybe in another 3 years we might be looking at a real contender for the "outside success story" I suspect many of you were hoping this would be. Given the change I've seen demonstrated here, I'd say don't rule out that possibility just yet.
So for all you clueless artists out there, there is a big lesson to be learnt here. Wake up, get some advice and use it and get serious and who knows, you too could actually successfully raise some money on Sellaband.
Oh and if you were wondering what it was I originally spotted, have a look in the biography section of Epyllion's profile. I thought there was an artist name in there that looked familiar, and if you cross-reference it with the PM I quoted above, you'll find the confirmation of that thought.
Sellaband
And so to that announcement I promised you earlier. As you might have guessed from previous blog posts and the changes I've mentioned with regard to parts buying earlier in this thread, I've decided to officially scale back my activities on Sellaband. The final straw on that score came this past month as a result of the Nearfield thread on the forum. I'd already been unsettled by Mandyleigh's blog at the start of the month, and as I've mentioned so many times you're probably sick to death of it by now, I'm not happy with the fact Sellaband don't even appear to be enforcing their own T&C and doing even the most basic of reality checks on artist plans. Answering questions on the support site (using the "feedback" link) appears to have virtually stopped, and for there to be complete silence from both an artist and Sellaband itself on the subject raised by the Nearfield thread has made me start to wonder if there's something going off in the background. Maybe even something with legal implications. And as I'm writing this blog, Mandyleigh starts a thread on the forum with the followup to the link I just gave you. It's unclear what the true situation behind this one is, but it seems it already serves to reinforce what I've already been saying re: artist education, advice etc - if you want to create a "new music industry" you first have to be able to educate in all aspects of the existing one or someone is going to walk straight into a problem through inexperience. As I said on the forum, you don't give a five year old the car keys and expect him to drive himself to school.
So maybe I'm just shooting at shadows, but it's almost like an air of "the calm before the storm" is developing. And if there is a storm developing out there about something, the signs are it's going to make previous storms about Sellaband look like a light drizzle. It's too quiet out there at the moment in more ways than one, and that's rattled me outside my comfort zone.
But what does this mean both for me and this blog? Well for starters, I'm going to withdraw pretty much all the money remaining on my Sellaband balance from the site. I REALLY don't like what I'm seeing (or in some cases not seeing) at present, so the loose money is coming out. I will however be continuing the blog (and hatchet day) and I will be continuing to look for music on the site, although I won't be buying any more parts unless it's over 50% in budget and moving significantly forwards. I'll be updating my "about me" in the next few days to reflect that. Call me the eternal optimist, or even call me crazy, but I still have hopes Sellaband will get their act together and realise what it is that has made them different to other sites out there in the past, and learn how to use that to their advantage.
So at this point I can only hope there aren't too many legacy problems around, and the site will still be around for this blog post next month. So hopefully I'll see you then and we'll see what's happened in the meantime.
Thursday, 14 January 2010
January 2010 hatchet day
Welcome to the first hatchet day of 2010 which also marks the third and final phase of my parts shuffling since the site went live. As you'll see, there's still a few cases where things are not 100% sorted even so, but the original aim of getting to a state I'm happy with under the new T&C I think has been pretty much achieved and I'll work through the remaining issues as and when things become relevant.
Results from last month
Finally the conclusion of the Paypal story, and yes the money has finally arrived in my Paypal account (including Christmas it's taken about twice as long as I was used to under the old system - might be interesting to compare without a holiday in the way). So you might think this is the end of the story. However, there's an interesting and relevant twist to my removal story, which I'll be revealing later in this blog. Meanwhile, you might want to note that the removal I've done now officially puts me back under $10,000 in Sellaband in total in terms of combining parts in artists with those floating round in my balance.
Parts changes
It's a long time ago now given the Christmas break, but the most interesting of the changes happened when Cubworld changed his plan and became only the second artist to see a parts increase from me since the new site went live. For those who are unaware, I didn't even buy a part in his first album although the opportunity was there. The case of the fence sitter who never quite managed to find enough in the music to buy a part applied. And to a large degree, the fence-sitting still applies. This time around he found enough to drag me into buying one part, and it probably would have stopped there, if it hadn't been for the timing of the plan change and the contents of his new plan.
Let me explain:
If you've been following my blog since the latest Sellaband site change, you'll know that I'm not altogether happy with it. Whilst I think it could have been a useful thing, the fact that Sellaband have basically washed their hands of having anything to do with what artists come up with, don't even seem to be interested in enforcing section 5.5 of their own fundraising terms and conditions and also have gone entirely backwards to the bad old days as far as the "housekeeping" to deal with inactive artists (or artists who have left Sellaband) is concerned, means I think we're back to the complete mess/farce we were looking at a year ago. To sort out the still interested, the clueless and the good-intentioned who merely need a bit of guidance from all the junk out there is even more of a nightmare than it was under the simple 1 part = 1 CD system we had before. As someone looking for artists to support, I consider it too much work unless the artist has a provable track record or can demonstrate a certain level of existing support in the first place. So once again, I found myself questioning what I'm still doing here. It was whilst I was contemplating this question and reminding myself of how and why I came to be here in the first place that Cubworld changed his plan.
I remember the airport baggage handler who used to sing songs for his wife and kids who signed up to the site, and who was so nervous the first time he performed at Paradiso, he almost forgot to plug in his guitar (and in fact looked like he'd have probably jumped a mile if someone had walked up and tapped him on the shoulder at that point). As I said in my review of the year post, to hand someone like that $50,000 when they basically have no experience of the music industry is like handing them a ten tonne ball and telling them that in order to achieve success they have to go run to the finish line over there (which is an infinite distance away). And whilst it's fair to say that finish line is still a long way away, the whole point is that unlike some others who have been handed a ten tonne ball, I've seen he's still trying to roll it, push it, kick it etc. inch by inch towards that destination. So having been talking to a number of artists now and watching what's been going on since the site changes, you could say I'm refining my rules and Cubworld has been the first of very few ever likely to benefit as a result.
As a "small believer who turned big" thinking (seemingly in error) that by supporting artists through on Sellaband it would give Sellaband something they could use to help promote themselves, many of my parts purchases have been as much for the benefit of Sellaband in the past as for the artists themselves. Now Sellaband have firmly removed themselves from that equation (if indeed they ever genuinely were in it) my focus for multi-part belief has moved towards those whose music I have a real liking for, or if I think someone has demonstrable proof that makes them worth supporting. And my standards on that one are very high, as I'm not expecting to receive all the money back (though it would be nice). Cubworld's plan is one I felt respects the original reason many believers (including myself) landed up buying parts, and he's demonstrated to me that unlike some others he is at least going to be trying to gig/sell CDs etc. I still believe there is a home for the CDs out there, given enough time and effort, hence my reasons for upgrading to 10 parts. i.e. I felt he was one of the few on here who was definitely worth support.
Next we come to the part changes due to phase 3 of the process I've been going through since the site change.
Wetwerks are still showing no signs of getting any kind of plan online, despite their October post and the fact they have been visiting their profile, even though it seems they haven't been saying a lot. Hence I've added to the continuing parts leakage on their profile again by dropping all the way back down to one part.
I also can't currently see Vegas Dragons getting any plan sorted soon, so again have dropped back to one part.
I am still talking to Phil Tweed, but given some developing stories on Sellaband plus the fact it seems he's still at a bit of a loss what to do, I have a horrible feeling I'm going to be reducing parts here as well soon. Probably the most heart-wrenching decision I'm likely to be making on here due to how much I like his music, but something which is starting to look ever more inevitable, despite the fact I keep convincing myself to put the decision off.
Finally in the case of Blister, I'm holding station on 5 parts at the moment due to past incentives, but it seems they haven't been seen on the site yet this year, so I will be keeping a close eye on this one.
There are still other cases where I'm not completely happy, but I think most are likely to resolve themselves during the normal hatchet process, so as stated earlier, I'll be waiting for the remaining cases to become relevant.
As for new part purchases? Absolutely none have been made. I'm now adding artists to my following list pretty much exclusively. Until I've fully researched an artist it's unlikely I'll be buying any parts in new signups in future, and given the amount of time that takes it means it will already be obvious whether there is a fanbase willing to support them or not by the time I get through the process for those I'm most interested in. Thank Sellaband for not enforcing their own terms and conditions as the reason for this, as it seems my new approach is going to be the only halfway reliable way I'll be able to sort out the idiots as a result. i.e. I'm generally not going to buying parts in future unless artists get much closer to their budgets than they are at present - obviously the best way to overcome this is if I already know you.
I've got a plan
It looks like The Esoteric Gender (who I mentioned in a previous blog post) now have a much better set of incentives online. They're working themselves towards the top of the list of artists I'm interested in and most likely to buy parts in as a result.
The perils of copying others comes into play in the form of Tyla Gang. Originally with a budget of $100,000 it seems their budget has now been halved on that score after having words with Sellaband. And whilst their incentives section itself is now empty compared to what it had before, their plan reveals a set of incentives including a Public Enemy T-shirt for 10 parts. Hmm... did I miss something happening here? If you like classic rock, you'll be right at home listening to their music though.
Alex Highton is one of the newer custom artists on the site, though I am a little confused as to how he landed up as one. All the signs are that (to me at least) he looks closer to most of the "normal" artists signing up, rather than someone with the level of plan you'd expect of a custom artist. However, I am impressed with the way he's approached the forum and he is supposed to be getting a revised budget and incentives online soon, so could well be one to watch as a result.
The list of artists belonging to the "help I'm lost" section also continues to increase at an alarming rate.
Koma Umbu are "Getting Rich and famous"
Can we expect a HUGE influx of Brazilian fans starting any time soon? Jesse Hart's plan reads as follows "A tour for Jesse's fans in Brazil. His main base of fans are in Brazil, he just needs the support to get there and share his music with his biggest fans. Tour is already scheduled for March/April and Jesse will be in Brazil by Jan. 15 setting up gigs". I might be wrong of course, but somehow I think there's rather a lot of misplaced optimism on this fundraising plan.
Also joining the crowd who thinks they can raise a budget in no time whatsoever is Shicehouse who signed up on December 19th with the following plan "We desperately need an economical injection to produce our new video "Sex With The Easter Bunny", which we want to release as fast as possible (January/February 2010). The thing will be completely free to watch on YouTube and downloadable on our MySpyce site".
Gritty has the following plan for consideration along with a budget of $100K. "Use my existing fan base and street team to tour and reinvest into my future projects including film works". Am I really surprised he's currently raised $0?
Clemont offers inspiration in the form of "A dream is a wish your heart makes..". A really big shame about the plan tbh as there's some excellent music on this particular profile.
Nipun the LORD would like "To earn some money by selling my songs". What more to say but welcome to the club?
And of course there are plenty more out there who joined up in December or earlier in January to join this brief selection, so I'll leave it up to you to see how many more of them you can find.
Following
Despite all the other things going off on Sellaband, I'd say the average music quality just keeps getting better and better, which makes it very difficult to pick out the real highlights for you. It's just a real shame that some of the best music seems to be coming these days with plans which are far from straightforward.
Airspace represent some of the best rock I've heard on here for quite a while, and if they'd signed up back when I was believing as soon as I found something I liked, they'd have landed up with me as their first believer. So a real shame that their plan has me going ouch and hence I'm only interested in following at present to see what happens. The 20K raised is supposed to be going to fund ONLY 2 singles and their associated videos. (5K per video and 5K for recording the single). So it's unclear exactly what is offered for the download (presumably the 2 singles - which for $10 looks a bit steep) plus the fact they appear to have completely missed the fact 10% of the project cost goes to Sellaband, meaning their numbers don't add up. Is the lack of business acumen seemingly displayed here the reason they were turned down for a grant I wonder?
Likewise Skelley's Dream is displaying some real quality music I'd have happily bought parts in in the past - this time soul, sometimes with hints of jazz or R&B depending on which of the large selection of uploaded tracks you listen to. But likewise the plan makes you wonder what exactly is going on. For starters most of it appears to have been copied directly from the "hints" on working out costs that you can find on the artist sign up form. Particularly confusing as a result is the section "1 CD to 500-700 Believers worldwide costs Between $1000 - $2000. The more we can reach, the more we raise for the instruments". On the one hand their profile has the "1 CD per believer" set to no and on the other, how more believers means there is more money left over for the instruments they want to buy with 25% of the revenue share is something I'm completely lost on. If you are offering a CD per believer and you have more believers it means your costs go up not down. Or do they mean money raised rather than revenue? So anyone who can translate their plan into English for me is more than welcome, because it seems my own grasp of the language doesn't stand a chance in working this one out myself. (and I was born and still live in England!)
Elsewhere Silver and Blue turned up early in December with some catchy tunes, one of which made my top 20 of the year. But if it isn't the plan, it seems it's the page attendance stopping me on artists instead most of the time. And they haven't been seen since the day they signed up. Also the fact they have no incentives means a 45K budget could well be difficult to reach.
If you want something a little out of the ordinary to listen to, then Voodoo Pharmacology is a very interesting find. No physical CD though, which is the next reason I get stopped on artists once the plan and the page attendance boxes get checked.
Here's one for all you lovers of the ladies out there that also has my interest. I'm half surprised Sommersby hasn't leapt onto Sound of Sirens yet and dragged them into the Dream Team, and as one of the few I've seen sign up since my last hatchet day blog who actually appear to have something halfway reasonable in the plan department as well as the music department, they have to have one of my strongest recommendations for you to check them out this time around.
And seemingly more proof that it's currently the ladies giving the better demonstration of having a clue comes in the form of the Jo Harman Project. The single track on the profile is actually made up of snippets glued together from her EP tracks. The biggest question comes in the form of how many fans she already has, given how new her band is, because I'd say the music itself suggests she is certainly one to watch.
There are quite a few more artists on my following list gained since the start of December, but given that this month is going to be shorter than usual due to the fact my hatchet day post gets delayed over Christmas/New Year, there is a chance I might mention a few more next month - it all depends how many more artists turn up and grab my attention.
Sellaband
Welcome to paint drying. Unless your name is Hind, or you're lucky to have a certain believer on board who is rapidly heading for $100,000 in the Sellaband system (yep that's correct, 5 zeros!). Very few artists other than those covered by the conditions I just stated are making steady progress forwards (if you are one of the exceptions, you can be sure you're doing a great job) - it's mostly a case of a few parts up and/or down. As a result I've been looking at what I should do about the money I have floating on my balance - it seems there are not enough artists turning up with a decent plan and/or support to tempt me in early these days, and with parts being sold sparsely in general, a big whack of parts from me isn't likely to have any noticeable extra effect of attracting believers into an artist I think is really worth supporting. I'm also not a fan of passive middlemen in general, so leaving large chunks of money lurking round doing nothing for long periods of time isn't an option either. As a result, I decided it's time I actually took some of the money I have back out of the Sellaband system. Hence the Paypal payout in December (and watch this space, because unless things improve in the next couple of weeks, it's likely I'll be having another one soon)
And so to the twist I mentioned earlier that you've been waiting for. I'm going to tell you where the bulk of the money I removed in December has gone and why.
You've heard me mention Matthew Ebel a few times already. So hopefully you're starting to get the idea that I like his music. Seriously, can someone tell me how I never fell over him and listened to his music before he hit Sellaband, because once you know he exists he seems to be basically everywhere (although usually buried rather than obvious). Blog posts, industry articles about him and how he is approaching a "modern" music industry - the more I look the more I keep finding even now. You may not realise, but I basically keep two lists of people in my head when it comes to Sellaband - those whose music I like a lot and those who have shown proof they are worth supporting (irrespective of whether I personally like their music or not). For someone to appear on one of those lists is hard enough, but to appear on both is insanely difficult. Let me tell you now that Matthew is towards the top of the list on both.
So the setup for the situation is the fact I not only have someone whose music I like, and they've also given me enough evidence they are worth supporting. Sellaband themselves have turned into a passive middleman, few parts are being sold unless an artist is new or getting the "big believer" push and I'm staring at money on my balance doing nothing as a result. Even a "push" from me isn't likely to make Matthew hit his target any time soon, so I figure it's more logical to remove some of that money and take a subscription now when it can actually show my support and do him some good. I know the money goes direct to him, and I also know his site has been running more than a year - would people still be renewing subscriptions if they weren't happy? i.e. this is just one piece of undenyable proof that I know I'm looking at someone who can deliver.
But between the time I arrived at this conclusion and the time I actually managed to get a payout to work, my plan of taking a subscription changed.
Matthew announced he was creating a new subscription option called the "Entourage" back in October that was only available for 5 people to take up (and also somewhat more expensive than his existing options). As might be expected with a seemingly rabid fanbase (albeit quite a small one) the first 4 went as soon as they became available, but the 5th seemingly got stuck. It sat there and sat there and sat there, and despite the odd mention that only 4 slots were taken on his weekly show, still nobody bit. When you consider I've spent more parts on Sellaband before in artists whose music I like less and I had more than enough money sitting round on my Sellaband balance, I think you can guess what's coming next. Yes folks, instead of taking one of his more general subscriptions as originally intended, I've followed the old Sellaband adage of putting my money where my mouth is and snapped up that last Entourage spot using money reclaimed from the Sellaband system. And trust me, assuming I'm still walking this earth and have the money, I'll guarantee you now that it'll be renewed next year too. So it all goes to show - why bother with a middleman in the first place unless there's a very good reason to do so? So unless Sellaband suddenly decide they have something to offer after all, I suspect this may not be the last time I decide there's more benefit to be had on both sides by taking my support to the artist instead. A hint of the way my Sellaband involvement is likely heading in future? Only time will tell.
And before you ask, I still have my 15 parts in his profile in the (vain?) hope that people (including Sellaband themselves) are going to wake up and realise the potentials they're missing here. If you've been following me, you'll know I might mention that something looks interesting or good, but I won't generally start raving publicly about an artist. So trust me when I say that I'm raving here about an artist genuinely worth supporting - it's a statement I can't repeat enough.
And Finally
Hopefully by the time the 1st February blog post rolls round, I'll be able to reveal what I think is the real Sellaband success story as I'm currently waiting for the last few pieces to fall into place on that score. Keep your hopes up for this one, because I'm pretty sure this story is going to teach a few people something interesting they weren't aware of before. The February hatchet day also marks the first time I'll be running a proper hatchet day checking for inactive artists since the site changes, so things could be very interesting on that score too.
Results from last month
Finally the conclusion of the Paypal story, and yes the money has finally arrived in my Paypal account (including Christmas it's taken about twice as long as I was used to under the old system - might be interesting to compare without a holiday in the way). So you might think this is the end of the story. However, there's an interesting and relevant twist to my removal story, which I'll be revealing later in this blog. Meanwhile, you might want to note that the removal I've done now officially puts me back under $10,000 in Sellaband in total in terms of combining parts in artists with those floating round in my balance.
Parts changes
It's a long time ago now given the Christmas break, but the most interesting of the changes happened when Cubworld changed his plan and became only the second artist to see a parts increase from me since the new site went live. For those who are unaware, I didn't even buy a part in his first album although the opportunity was there. The case of the fence sitter who never quite managed to find enough in the music to buy a part applied. And to a large degree, the fence-sitting still applies. This time around he found enough to drag me into buying one part, and it probably would have stopped there, if it hadn't been for the timing of the plan change and the contents of his new plan.
Let me explain:
If you've been following my blog since the latest Sellaband site change, you'll know that I'm not altogether happy with it. Whilst I think it could have been a useful thing, the fact that Sellaband have basically washed their hands of having anything to do with what artists come up with, don't even seem to be interested in enforcing section 5.5 of their own fundraising terms and conditions and also have gone entirely backwards to the bad old days as far as the "housekeeping" to deal with inactive artists (or artists who have left Sellaband) is concerned, means I think we're back to the complete mess/farce we were looking at a year ago. To sort out the still interested, the clueless and the good-intentioned who merely need a bit of guidance from all the junk out there is even more of a nightmare than it was under the simple 1 part = 1 CD system we had before. As someone looking for artists to support, I consider it too much work unless the artist has a provable track record or can demonstrate a certain level of existing support in the first place. So once again, I found myself questioning what I'm still doing here. It was whilst I was contemplating this question and reminding myself of how and why I came to be here in the first place that Cubworld changed his plan.
I remember the airport baggage handler who used to sing songs for his wife and kids who signed up to the site, and who was so nervous the first time he performed at Paradiso, he almost forgot to plug in his guitar (and in fact looked like he'd have probably jumped a mile if someone had walked up and tapped him on the shoulder at that point). As I said in my review of the year post, to hand someone like that $50,000 when they basically have no experience of the music industry is like handing them a ten tonne ball and telling them that in order to achieve success they have to go run to the finish line over there (which is an infinite distance away). And whilst it's fair to say that finish line is still a long way away, the whole point is that unlike some others who have been handed a ten tonne ball, I've seen he's still trying to roll it, push it, kick it etc. inch by inch towards that destination. So having been talking to a number of artists now and watching what's been going on since the site changes, you could say I'm refining my rules and Cubworld has been the first of very few ever likely to benefit as a result.
As a "small believer who turned big" thinking (seemingly in error) that by supporting artists through on Sellaband it would give Sellaband something they could use to help promote themselves, many of my parts purchases have been as much for the benefit of Sellaband in the past as for the artists themselves. Now Sellaband have firmly removed themselves from that equation (if indeed they ever genuinely were in it) my focus for multi-part belief has moved towards those whose music I have a real liking for, or if I think someone has demonstrable proof that makes them worth supporting. And my standards on that one are very high, as I'm not expecting to receive all the money back (though it would be nice). Cubworld's plan is one I felt respects the original reason many believers (including myself) landed up buying parts, and he's demonstrated to me that unlike some others he is at least going to be trying to gig/sell CDs etc. I still believe there is a home for the CDs out there, given enough time and effort, hence my reasons for upgrading to 10 parts. i.e. I felt he was one of the few on here who was definitely worth support.
Next we come to the part changes due to phase 3 of the process I've been going through since the site change.
Wetwerks are still showing no signs of getting any kind of plan online, despite their October post and the fact they have been visiting their profile, even though it seems they haven't been saying a lot. Hence I've added to the continuing parts leakage on their profile again by dropping all the way back down to one part.
I also can't currently see Vegas Dragons getting any plan sorted soon, so again have dropped back to one part.
I am still talking to Phil Tweed, but given some developing stories on Sellaband plus the fact it seems he's still at a bit of a loss what to do, I have a horrible feeling I'm going to be reducing parts here as well soon. Probably the most heart-wrenching decision I'm likely to be making on here due to how much I like his music, but something which is starting to look ever more inevitable, despite the fact I keep convincing myself to put the decision off.
Finally in the case of Blister, I'm holding station on 5 parts at the moment due to past incentives, but it seems they haven't been seen on the site yet this year, so I will be keeping a close eye on this one.
There are still other cases where I'm not completely happy, but I think most are likely to resolve themselves during the normal hatchet process, so as stated earlier, I'll be waiting for the remaining cases to become relevant.
As for new part purchases? Absolutely none have been made. I'm now adding artists to my following list pretty much exclusively. Until I've fully researched an artist it's unlikely I'll be buying any parts in new signups in future, and given the amount of time that takes it means it will already be obvious whether there is a fanbase willing to support them or not by the time I get through the process for those I'm most interested in. Thank Sellaband for not enforcing their own terms and conditions as the reason for this, as it seems my new approach is going to be the only halfway reliable way I'll be able to sort out the idiots as a result. i.e. I'm generally not going to buying parts in future unless artists get much closer to their budgets than they are at present - obviously the best way to overcome this is if I already know you.
I've got a plan
It looks like The Esoteric Gender (who I mentioned in a previous blog post) now have a much better set of incentives online. They're working themselves towards the top of the list of artists I'm interested in and most likely to buy parts in as a result.
The perils of copying others comes into play in the form of Tyla Gang. Originally with a budget of $100,000 it seems their budget has now been halved on that score after having words with Sellaband. And whilst their incentives section itself is now empty compared to what it had before, their plan reveals a set of incentives including a Public Enemy T-shirt for 10 parts. Hmm... did I miss something happening here? If you like classic rock, you'll be right at home listening to their music though.
Alex Highton is one of the newer custom artists on the site, though I am a little confused as to how he landed up as one. All the signs are that (to me at least) he looks closer to most of the "normal" artists signing up, rather than someone with the level of plan you'd expect of a custom artist. However, I am impressed with the way he's approached the forum and he is supposed to be getting a revised budget and incentives online soon, so could well be one to watch as a result.
The list of artists belonging to the "help I'm lost" section also continues to increase at an alarming rate.
Koma Umbu are "Getting Rich and famous"
Can we expect a HUGE influx of Brazilian fans starting any time soon? Jesse Hart's plan reads as follows "A tour for Jesse's fans in Brazil. His main base of fans are in Brazil, he just needs the support to get there and share his music with his biggest fans. Tour is already scheduled for March/April and Jesse will be in Brazil by Jan. 15 setting up gigs". I might be wrong of course, but somehow I think there's rather a lot of misplaced optimism on this fundraising plan.
Also joining the crowd who thinks they can raise a budget in no time whatsoever is Shicehouse who signed up on December 19th with the following plan "We desperately need an economical injection to produce our new video "Sex With The Easter Bunny", which we want to release as fast as possible (January/February 2010). The thing will be completely free to watch on YouTube and downloadable on our MySpyce site".
Gritty has the following plan for consideration along with a budget of $100K. "Use my existing fan base and street team to tour and reinvest into my future projects including film works". Am I really surprised he's currently raised $0?
Clemont offers inspiration in the form of "A dream is a wish your heart makes..". A really big shame about the plan tbh as there's some excellent music on this particular profile.
Nipun the LORD would like "To earn some money by selling my songs". What more to say but welcome to the club?
And of course there are plenty more out there who joined up in December or earlier in January to join this brief selection, so I'll leave it up to you to see how many more of them you can find.
Following
Despite all the other things going off on Sellaband, I'd say the average music quality just keeps getting better and better, which makes it very difficult to pick out the real highlights for you. It's just a real shame that some of the best music seems to be coming these days with plans which are far from straightforward.
Airspace represent some of the best rock I've heard on here for quite a while, and if they'd signed up back when I was believing as soon as I found something I liked, they'd have landed up with me as their first believer. So a real shame that their plan has me going ouch and hence I'm only interested in following at present to see what happens. The 20K raised is supposed to be going to fund ONLY 2 singles and their associated videos. (5K per video and 5K for recording the single). So it's unclear exactly what is offered for the download (presumably the 2 singles - which for $10 looks a bit steep) plus the fact they appear to have completely missed the fact 10% of the project cost goes to Sellaband, meaning their numbers don't add up. Is the lack of business acumen seemingly displayed here the reason they were turned down for a grant I wonder?
Likewise Skelley's Dream is displaying some real quality music I'd have happily bought parts in in the past - this time soul, sometimes with hints of jazz or R&B depending on which of the large selection of uploaded tracks you listen to. But likewise the plan makes you wonder what exactly is going on. For starters most of it appears to have been copied directly from the "hints" on working out costs that you can find on the artist sign up form. Particularly confusing as a result is the section "1 CD to 500-700 Believers worldwide costs Between $1000 - $2000. The more we can reach, the more we raise for the instruments". On the one hand their profile has the "1 CD per believer" set to no and on the other, how more believers means there is more money left over for the instruments they want to buy with 25% of the revenue share is something I'm completely lost on. If you are offering a CD per believer and you have more believers it means your costs go up not down. Or do they mean money raised rather than revenue? So anyone who can translate their plan into English for me is more than welcome, because it seems my own grasp of the language doesn't stand a chance in working this one out myself. (and I was born and still live in England!)
Elsewhere Silver and Blue turned up early in December with some catchy tunes, one of which made my top 20 of the year. But if it isn't the plan, it seems it's the page attendance stopping me on artists instead most of the time. And they haven't been seen since the day they signed up. Also the fact they have no incentives means a 45K budget could well be difficult to reach.
If you want something a little out of the ordinary to listen to, then Voodoo Pharmacology is a very interesting find. No physical CD though, which is the next reason I get stopped on artists once the plan and the page attendance boxes get checked.
Here's one for all you lovers of the ladies out there that also has my interest. I'm half surprised Sommersby hasn't leapt onto Sound of Sirens yet and dragged them into the Dream Team, and as one of the few I've seen sign up since my last hatchet day blog who actually appear to have something halfway reasonable in the plan department as well as the music department, they have to have one of my strongest recommendations for you to check them out this time around.
And seemingly more proof that it's currently the ladies giving the better demonstration of having a clue comes in the form of the Jo Harman Project. The single track on the profile is actually made up of snippets glued together from her EP tracks. The biggest question comes in the form of how many fans she already has, given how new her band is, because I'd say the music itself suggests she is certainly one to watch.
There are quite a few more artists on my following list gained since the start of December, but given that this month is going to be shorter than usual due to the fact my hatchet day post gets delayed over Christmas/New Year, there is a chance I might mention a few more next month - it all depends how many more artists turn up and grab my attention.
Sellaband
Welcome to paint drying. Unless your name is Hind, or you're lucky to have a certain believer on board who is rapidly heading for $100,000 in the Sellaband system (yep that's correct, 5 zeros!). Very few artists other than those covered by the conditions I just stated are making steady progress forwards (if you are one of the exceptions, you can be sure you're doing a great job) - it's mostly a case of a few parts up and/or down. As a result I've been looking at what I should do about the money I have floating on my balance - it seems there are not enough artists turning up with a decent plan and/or support to tempt me in early these days, and with parts being sold sparsely in general, a big whack of parts from me isn't likely to have any noticeable extra effect of attracting believers into an artist I think is really worth supporting. I'm also not a fan of passive middlemen in general, so leaving large chunks of money lurking round doing nothing for long periods of time isn't an option either. As a result, I decided it's time I actually took some of the money I have back out of the Sellaband system. Hence the Paypal payout in December (and watch this space, because unless things improve in the next couple of weeks, it's likely I'll be having another one soon)
And so to the twist I mentioned earlier that you've been waiting for. I'm going to tell you where the bulk of the money I removed in December has gone and why.
You've heard me mention Matthew Ebel a few times already. So hopefully you're starting to get the idea that I like his music. Seriously, can someone tell me how I never fell over him and listened to his music before he hit Sellaband, because once you know he exists he seems to be basically everywhere (although usually buried rather than obvious). Blog posts, industry articles about him and how he is approaching a "modern" music industry - the more I look the more I keep finding even now. You may not realise, but I basically keep two lists of people in my head when it comes to Sellaband - those whose music I like a lot and those who have shown proof they are worth supporting (irrespective of whether I personally like their music or not). For someone to appear on one of those lists is hard enough, but to appear on both is insanely difficult. Let me tell you now that Matthew is towards the top of the list on both.
So the setup for the situation is the fact I not only have someone whose music I like, and they've also given me enough evidence they are worth supporting. Sellaband themselves have turned into a passive middleman, few parts are being sold unless an artist is new or getting the "big believer" push and I'm staring at money on my balance doing nothing as a result. Even a "push" from me isn't likely to make Matthew hit his target any time soon, so I figure it's more logical to remove some of that money and take a subscription now when it can actually show my support and do him some good. I know the money goes direct to him, and I also know his site has been running more than a year - would people still be renewing subscriptions if they weren't happy? i.e. this is just one piece of undenyable proof that I know I'm looking at someone who can deliver.
But between the time I arrived at this conclusion and the time I actually managed to get a payout to work, my plan of taking a subscription changed.
Matthew announced he was creating a new subscription option called the "Entourage" back in October that was only available for 5 people to take up (and also somewhat more expensive than his existing options). As might be expected with a seemingly rabid fanbase (albeit quite a small one) the first 4 went as soon as they became available, but the 5th seemingly got stuck. It sat there and sat there and sat there, and despite the odd mention that only 4 slots were taken on his weekly show, still nobody bit. When you consider I've spent more parts on Sellaband before in artists whose music I like less and I had more than enough money sitting round on my Sellaband balance, I think you can guess what's coming next. Yes folks, instead of taking one of his more general subscriptions as originally intended, I've followed the old Sellaband adage of putting my money where my mouth is and snapped up that last Entourage spot using money reclaimed from the Sellaband system. And trust me, assuming I'm still walking this earth and have the money, I'll guarantee you now that it'll be renewed next year too. So it all goes to show - why bother with a middleman in the first place unless there's a very good reason to do so? So unless Sellaband suddenly decide they have something to offer after all, I suspect this may not be the last time I decide there's more benefit to be had on both sides by taking my support to the artist instead. A hint of the way my Sellaband involvement is likely heading in future? Only time will tell.
And before you ask, I still have my 15 parts in his profile in the (vain?) hope that people (including Sellaband themselves) are going to wake up and realise the potentials they're missing here. If you've been following me, you'll know I might mention that something looks interesting or good, but I won't generally start raving publicly about an artist. So trust me when I say that I'm raving here about an artist genuinely worth supporting - it's a statement I can't repeat enough.
And Finally
Hopefully by the time the 1st February blog post rolls round, I'll be able to reveal what I think is the real Sellaband success story as I'm currently waiting for the last few pieces to fall into place on that score. Keep your hopes up for this one, because I'm pretty sure this story is going to teach a few people something interesting they weren't aware of before. The February hatchet day also marks the first time I'll be running a proper hatchet day checking for inactive artists since the site changes, so things could be very interesting on that score too.
Sunday, 3 January 2010
Review of the Year 2009
Welcome to this year's review, when you can find out my highlights and disappointments of 2009 and discover all kinds of other things such as my top artists and songs of the year.
But before we get to the really good stuff, let's give you a quick update on just a few of the more interesting things that have happened since my last "hatchet day" post.
A quick update
Wow. I'm amazed. Do I scare people round here or something? Are you afraid I might just tell you the truth (and hearing the truth scares you), or are you all quite happy in your current knowledge? With several people having said on the forum that they were quite interested in the old "believer questions" sections from the Tribune, and the fact I'm one of the believers who was never asked to participate in that, this is why I opened up the opportunity for you to ask me anything you wanted (as stated in my previous 2 hatchet day posts). But it seems I won't be answering any questions in this special after all, as not a single one appeared in my inbox! With the readership of this blog seemingly continuing to grow, only you readers can know the reasons why not a single one of you took me up on this offer and you can therefore also be sure it's going to be a long time before I make a similar offer again.
It looks like my post about Scrooge coming to Sellaband had an effect on Jon Robert's parts. Less than 24 hours after publishing my blog, he'd lost another one. And it hasn't entirely stopped there, as he's since lost more but also gained one - the net result being that he's back on the same budget he was on before he changed his plan. Guess the only thing to say here is that obviously Scrooge is very active on Sellaband this year and things like Christmas spirit and charity have been lost in favour of a greedy Christmas charts parts competition. Bah Humbug. I'll also let you decide for yourselves what you think this means for artists currently on Sellaband, because as far as I'm aware, I'm still the only mention of his charity initiative (as far as Sellaband itself or other active users is concerned) in the first place.
I also had another go at a Paypal payout, and this time it looks like it has worked. Watch this space though, as although the money has disappeared from my Sellaband balance, it still hasn't appeared in my Paypal account, so the story may not be quite over yet. Christmas has managed to get in the way as far as the 5-7 working days quoted is concerned though, so there's still a few days left before I need to consider throwing some knives around. So fingers crossed the outcome will be known before my January hatchet day blog gets posted.
Top 10 artists of 2009
I like an awful lot of music, but this is the only time of the year you can discover who my real favourites are. As with all things, the list changes each year, often as I discover more about each artist and their music. To be eligible for this, the artist needs to be currently raising a budget on Sellaband or have completed one within the last 12 months and have posted at least one new song on that profile during that time. So here's the list for 2009
1. We Love The Underground
2. Phil Tweed
3. Matthew Ebel
4. Civilized Tears
5. Ulrik
6. MOPI
7. The Jade Diary
8. The Lights
9. Voodoo Johnson
10. Conflict in the sky
Most noticeable this year is that the 2-way scrap for my affections at the top has most definitely become a 3-way scrap. And to be honest it's been so close between the top three that I don't think I actually officially decided the order until I wrote it here. Brad manages to hang onto first place by a whisker, mostly as a result of coming up with more new material than Phil. But both these two should watch out next year, because there's a very real threat of displacement coming from third place in the form of new entry Matthew Ebel. Squeezed into third place this time around partly because of being a new find and partly because although he definitely has the talent (you might want to put the innocents to bed before you check this out though), he's not quite 100% there 100% of the time. Given that he's been putting out at least 2 new songs every month, the fact he doesn't necessarily write stuff that is easy to play in the first place (watch him play live and solo when 3 hands are required for starters!) and is now going to be putting out an album every 6 months (with or without the help of Sellaband), it's obvious the odd missed note is more of a case of familiarity/practice due to the volume of material than anything else. And if this makes you worry about "filler", well I haven't seen any. I also haven't found a song that I don't like yet, and that's pretty much a rarity in itself.
Quite a few slots obviously became free this year as a result of artists leaving, going pretty much inactive, or becoming ineligible due to finishing their fundraising more than a year ago, so it's made for some quite interesting changes from last year further down in the list, as a few of my "near misses" from last time around managed to fight their way on this time against some of the newcomers, most notably Civilized Tears who went all the way up to 4th. This year the near misses are as follows: Derek Daisey, Jon Allen and Taylor Horn.
Top 20 songs of 2009
Here's the list of my favourite songs for this year. To be eligible for this, the song needs to be currently on the artist's Sellaband profile and I also impose a limit of one song per artist. The new requirement for this year is that the artist must either be currently fundraising or have reached their target in the last 12 months.
1. A few good men -Phil Tweed
2. Who do you find - Ulrik
3. Drive away - Matthew Ebel
4. Feel it down - MOPI
5. Drop dead girl - Mount Fabric
6. Words you bleed - Derek Daisey
7. Open her eyes - Silverimage
8. Bad habit - Voodoo Johnson
9. 7:30 plane - Matt Byers
10. January blues - The Lights
11. Dead man's suit - Jon Allen
12. Love called me home - The Jade Diary
13. The universe is burning - Marc Supsic
14. My enemy - Silver and Blue
15. The comedown (we are not saints) - We Love The Underground
16. Country storm - Aly Cook
17. Death clock - Conflict in the Sky
18. Candy whore - Six Eyes Lost
19. Back up - Taylor Horn
20. Take me - Broken Sun
Sadly a few of the artists on this list appear to be going inactive, which is a real shame. You'll find all the listed songs in my playlist until February, when I'll revert to a playlist which only contains fundraising artists. Most interesting in this top twenty list is probably either Mount Fabric, as I feel this particular song is one of the flashes of genius that occasionally pop up from the often quite mediocre I've heard from that direction, or Silver and Blue who are so new on the site I haven't even had the opportunity to mention them in a hatchet day post yet.
Dropped the ball
Here's my list of artists who I think have real music potential, but look like they're in the process of dropping the ball.
1. Matt Byers
2. Silverimage
3. Voodoo Johnson
Amazingly Matt still seems to be listed on Sellaband despite all the site changes and the fact I mentioned him in this category last year as having not been seen for ages round the site. The last seen date on his profile is still listed as unknown. Silverimage left a message on their own wall back in August mentioning that not only were they having problems with the site, but there was also a split in progress. Voodoo Johnson also haven't been seen around the site in more than 3 months now so the question of whether they're actually interested in fundraising any more is coming to the fore. It will be interesting to see if any of these recover or disappear over the next few months.
Sellaband albums
What's my favourite of the albums produced so far? Just a top 5 here as there's still a relatively small number to choose from. The main factor deciding the order is how much I like the tracks on an album and therefore how likely I'd have been to go out and buy it if I'd heard it first.
1. Arm Yourself - BulletProof Messenger
2. Circles and Squares - Francis Rodino
3. In Control - Nemesea
4. The Elements - Second Person
5. Until the Morning Light - Daniel Ward-Murphy
So interestingly, no change from last year, although I have to make special mention for Unseen by Ellie Williams at this point, as I think it's easily the best Sellaband album Tony Platt has produced to date and shows exactly why he's considered a world class producer. So from a personal point of view, whilst I have a lower liking for the songs themselves than I do for those of some other artists, I'd still say this album is highly recommended as not to be missed due to its quality.
I also got surprised by one of the album releases this year, as it contained a derivative work of a very well known song. I say derivative, because while the lyrics had been altered, the song itself was the same (just the artist's own interpretation as opposed to a straight copy). Interestingly the artist in question had had the cover (i.e. exactly the same song but with its original lyrics) on their page when they were fundraising. I'm slightly surprised Sellaband let this one through given the terms and conditions under which this album was produced, particularly as the last time I looked, the original composer was still alive, so here's hoping the correct dues have indeed been paid. Meanwhile, I'll leave you to try and work out for yourselves which artist I'm referring to.
Disappointments of the year
1. Vegas Dragons
Let me take you off sideways first by talking about Cubworld raising his 50K (trust me, the relevance will become clear by the end). When you consider that when Jake originally signed up to the site, he was just an airport baggage handler who sang songs for his wife and kids, the idea of giving someone like that 50K to make an album and therefore effectively get started in the music industry from nothing is like handing them a ten tonne ball and telling them they need to carry it to a finish line that's an infinite distance away. And despite starting from nothing, as soon as he was given it I've seen him try and pick that ball up and carry it, or even effectively just keep pushing and shoving, trying to roll it on the ground towards that finish line. It's fair to say he's still an infinite distance away, but equally you can see that having been given that ball, he has both moved and is still trying to keep moving. You'll find out the full story in my hatchet day post, but this is just part of the reason why Cubworld became only the second artist on my belief list to see a parts increase since the site change - the fact that he's making that effort deserves respect.
But you might be wondering where the relevance of Cubworld to Vegas Dragons is. If you know the history you shouldn't be, because you should be aware that the story behind Vegas Dragons also means a ten tonne ball effectively got handed out in that direction as well. And as one of those doing a large part of the handing, you could say I've had a vested interest in trying to help out beyond handing over my part of that particular 50K.
So it was when I was writing the "review of the year" blog this time last year, that I noticed the Vegas Dragons website had gone offline. For those who don't know the story, when Brian first joined the site, there was no Vegas Dragons website. Not only did I create the site for him free of charge using my limited knowledge and experience, but I also paid for the first year of hosting (which turned out to be 18 months in the end, due to the special offer on at the time). I also rethemed the site to match Lovingly Cruel on its release (again for free) and indeed would probably have continued to maintain it for as long as he wanted, providing he just picked up the hosting tab. Towards the end of December last year is when the money I'd paid ran out and I contacted Brian to let him know (despite the fact the reminder e-mail that the site was due for renewal would have been sent straight to him anyway). The bill has never been paid. And like any independent web developer worth their salt, I still have a backup of the site, so it wouldn't exactly have been hard (and indeed still isn't) to get the site back working again - seriously, how hard is it to pay one small bill?. Add to this some of the other things that need to be done and still haven't, and it soon becomes clear that when it comes to dealing with ten tonne balls, Cubworld and Vegas Dragons are a world apart. And perhaps a second lesson to be learned as well - that despite the best will in the world and the support of others, there does come a point where artists have to wake up and realise it's no use waiting for things to happen, you actually have to do something yourself rather than expect that others will do everything for you. Don't get me wrong, there's still a friendship there - it's just a highly frustrating situation when it's known and agreed what needs to be done, but it just doesn't happen. So if you're wondering what happened to the Vegas Dragons website, that's the story behind that particular disappearance. And if you think carefully, maybe this story can also go some way towards explaining just part of the reason behind my own changes in parts buying as time has passed, and hence why I have a certain reluctance these days to jump in and support, even when I see something that I think has potential.
2. Sellaband
Probably no surprise here, but some of the reasons for my own disappointment may be a little bit different from what you might expect. I could probably write an entire blog on this subject alone, but let's keep it simple with a summary list of the more important ones in no particular order.
- failure to maintain "housekeeping" of inactive profiles - this was only done for a couple of months before the June site change, and we've been back at the bad old days of them not deleting inactive ones, or removing artists who are stating on their profiles they've left the site since.
- coming up with a confusing and complicated incentive/plan system which seems to be just as complicated and confusing for artists to get changed. Even artists are struggling to know how to fill this in to make sense, never mind the poor believers who have to try and interpret what everything really means themselves now. Sorting out those with good intentions from the (often total) idiots is a nightmare as a result.
- failure to enforce section 5.5 in the current fundraising terms and conditions. Just go back over the blogs I've posted since the last site change and look at the "help I'm lost" part of the section I have dealing with artist plans. Despite some of these plans being more than 2 months old now, they still don't conform to this section of the T&C and Sellaband appear to be doing nothing to rectify the situation. This is also only the tip of an ever increasing iceberg as far as this particular problem is concerned.
- no Sellabration. 2009 was probably the last chance I would have been able to do some travelling (particularly abroad) for a while and I'd been aiming to go. It's unlikely I'll be getting out much this year, even if it does return.
- isolation rather than fostering of community. I remember mentioning in last year's blog that I feared this was the way they were heading and it looks like that fear came true.
I may still be listening to and following interesting new music on the site, but is it really any wonder that even I have become somewhat apathetic as far as believing in artists is concerned?
And you shouldn't be surprised that I don't mention ArenaFest in that particular list. After all, who described it in an earlier blog post as "looking like a big if"? So whatever the story behind its failure to occur, it should be obvious that the fact it didn't happen was obviously not an entirely unexpected possibility to me, and hence couldn't be that much of a source of disappointment as a result.
3. Believers
A slightly misleading title perhaps. One thing this year of disruption on Sellaband has given me is a time to reflect on the "good old days" when I used to talk to other believers and artists on Skype, or could be found trading comments with others on their pages. But if it wasn't for "Mr Silver Balls" himself (i.e. UBG) I'd be inclined to think I'm the earliest active believer left. Particularly distressing to me was to discover the apparent loss of Dolly. The first I noticed something was wrong was when I discovered the music interests she had on her page had been replaced with some philosophy about the dangers of herd behaviour. If you visit her page today, it's gone - the photos, everything in fact except for the fact her "about me" is now populated by the following quote from Henry David Thoreau. “Men profess to be lovers of music, but for the most part they give no evidence in their opinions and lives that they have heard it.” If you aren't familiar with Dolly, then let me tell you she is (or should that be was given the seeming disappearance) employed by Sellaband and has an appreciation of music that goes beyond the average. Musically, you got the sense that Dolly was dining on caviar while you had a tin of baked beans at hand. Not in a snobbish way, but rather for her appreciation of music as an art form rather than just your run-of-the-mill enjoyment that the average person has. To see a believer such as this go AWOL is probably the icing on the cake of the sadness I feel at seeing so many of the believers who were around with me in the early days drift away from the site, and it truly makes me wonder what the future holds if true supporters of music such as Dolly no longer have interest in the site.
The forgotten
As regular readers of my blog will know, it tends to be very long. As a result I often reach a stage where I intended to talk about someone or something and don't get around to it because the blog is already quite long. And often I intend to talk about it the next month as a result, but then find the same effectively happens again. So here are just some of those who ought to have been mentioned but weren't through lack of space.
NRG Rising
There's been more than one point when I ought to have written about these ladies, but somehow something else always worked its way further up in my memory. Probably the best reggae I've heard on the site since Alioune K decided to call it quits, although the demos themselves aren't the best in quality. I'll be interested to see what their first actual single sounds like, as whilst I'm not a huge reggae fan, I am currently keeping watch from a distance and will almost certainly take a better look at them once the budget raised figure starts to become that bit more serious.
M Harris
I had been hoping the arrival of Public Enemy might have a knock-on effect in this direction, but with rumours floating around that PE aren't even promoting their Sellaband profile on their current tour, this might be a long time in coming. There is also the question of what exactly a M Harris CD is going to sound like, given the current profile contents. I originally said a long time ago that it was obvious there was more to him than just rap, and now Sellaband is allowing more than 3 tracks on a profile the range starts to become that much clearer. On an artist where a track like "Do it" has me reaching for the skip button, but I could quite happily listen to something like "(ethnic)" for hours on end, it opens questions as to what exactly he is planning for a Sellaband album. Irrespective of whether it falls more towards the rap/hip-hop end or the jazz end of the range though, it seems neither are particularly popular amongst current believers.
Jon Allen
As one of several custom artists that came in at the same time, this turned out to be an artist I was extremely interested in but a combination of the high part price and its corresponding absurd plan/incentives put me off. With Amazon selling the album in question for less than 10 GBP, the only reasons to take an interest in the Sellaband profile were really those of the extra EP+download plus the concert ticket. And the problem with the concert ticket is of course the fact you'd really have to be in the UK to take advantage of that in the first place. Sadly a profile that therefore looked only of real interest to UK believers who didn't already own the album (which would presumably rule out most of his existing fanbase) and hence something which has held a sense of doom from the start, even without the low profile attendance.
The Fanclub
Well here's another interesting custom artist, and one that makes me wonder if we're now seeing the "custom promotion profile" appearing. There's always been a big question over artists who seemingly are using the site merely for promotion rather than having any genuine intention of raising a budget and the frustration it can bring to music lovers who are genuinely looking for someone who is genuinely interested too. So cue an artist who doesn't have a website (just a glorified e-mail signup) and whose management company doesn't have a website either (just a nice "under development" page) despite the fact they're quite happily mentioning all the experience they have on their myspace site. Roll forward a couple of months and recheck, and find that nothing has changed on this score, and what you have basically looks like a profile that's just on Sellaband for the promotion. Either that or their choice of signup time on Sellaband is bad, which let's face it, isn't that much of a recommendation for their management either.
Kompis is to this year's post what netvalar was to last year's. I always read the 50K music mag, but due to its timing I never tend to make any comment or post about it, because I'm either still writing my own blog post or busy taking a breather having just finished writing one. It doesn't mean I don't appreciate the effort though. In a world where Sellaband appear to have given up on community, it's always great to find there are still other believers still trying to do their bit to keep a spark alive. So this is me raising a glass to Kompis for his efforts in that direction.
And finally...
I'll be taking a short breather before my January hatchet day post. That means you should be able to expect that particular installment in about a week's time, when I'll hopefully be able to tell you the finish of the stories I've left ongoing here as well as give you a catch-up on the new artists of interest and my parts changes. Happy New year and here's hoping for a better 2010 on Sellaband than 2009 has been.
But before we get to the really good stuff, let's give you a quick update on just a few of the more interesting things that have happened since my last "hatchet day" post.
A quick update
Wow. I'm amazed. Do I scare people round here or something? Are you afraid I might just tell you the truth (and hearing the truth scares you), or are you all quite happy in your current knowledge? With several people having said on the forum that they were quite interested in the old "believer questions" sections from the Tribune, and the fact I'm one of the believers who was never asked to participate in that, this is why I opened up the opportunity for you to ask me anything you wanted (as stated in my previous 2 hatchet day posts). But it seems I won't be answering any questions in this special after all, as not a single one appeared in my inbox! With the readership of this blog seemingly continuing to grow, only you readers can know the reasons why not a single one of you took me up on this offer and you can therefore also be sure it's going to be a long time before I make a similar offer again.
It looks like my post about Scrooge coming to Sellaband had an effect on Jon Robert's parts. Less than 24 hours after publishing my blog, he'd lost another one. And it hasn't entirely stopped there, as he's since lost more but also gained one - the net result being that he's back on the same budget he was on before he changed his plan. Guess the only thing to say here is that obviously Scrooge is very active on Sellaband this year and things like Christmas spirit and charity have been lost in favour of a greedy Christmas charts parts competition. Bah Humbug. I'll also let you decide for yourselves what you think this means for artists currently on Sellaband, because as far as I'm aware, I'm still the only mention of his charity initiative (as far as Sellaband itself or other active users is concerned) in the first place.
I also had another go at a Paypal payout, and this time it looks like it has worked. Watch this space though, as although the money has disappeared from my Sellaband balance, it still hasn't appeared in my Paypal account, so the story may not be quite over yet. Christmas has managed to get in the way as far as the 5-7 working days quoted is concerned though, so there's still a few days left before I need to consider throwing some knives around. So fingers crossed the outcome will be known before my January hatchet day blog gets posted.
Top 10 artists of 2009
I like an awful lot of music, but this is the only time of the year you can discover who my real favourites are. As with all things, the list changes each year, often as I discover more about each artist and their music. To be eligible for this, the artist needs to be currently raising a budget on Sellaband or have completed one within the last 12 months and have posted at least one new song on that profile during that time. So here's the list for 2009
1. We Love The Underground
2. Phil Tweed
3. Matthew Ebel
4. Civilized Tears
5. Ulrik
6. MOPI
7. The Jade Diary
8. The Lights
9. Voodoo Johnson
10. Conflict in the sky
Most noticeable this year is that the 2-way scrap for my affections at the top has most definitely become a 3-way scrap. And to be honest it's been so close between the top three that I don't think I actually officially decided the order until I wrote it here. Brad manages to hang onto first place by a whisker, mostly as a result of coming up with more new material than Phil. But both these two should watch out next year, because there's a very real threat of displacement coming from third place in the form of new entry Matthew Ebel. Squeezed into third place this time around partly because of being a new find and partly because although he definitely has the talent (you might want to put the innocents to bed before you check this out though), he's not quite 100% there 100% of the time. Given that he's been putting out at least 2 new songs every month, the fact he doesn't necessarily write stuff that is easy to play in the first place (watch him play live and solo when 3 hands are required for starters!) and is now going to be putting out an album every 6 months (with or without the help of Sellaband), it's obvious the odd missed note is more of a case of familiarity/practice due to the volume of material than anything else. And if this makes you worry about "filler", well I haven't seen any. I also haven't found a song that I don't like yet, and that's pretty much a rarity in itself.
Quite a few slots obviously became free this year as a result of artists leaving, going pretty much inactive, or becoming ineligible due to finishing their fundraising more than a year ago, so it's made for some quite interesting changes from last year further down in the list, as a few of my "near misses" from last time around managed to fight their way on this time against some of the newcomers, most notably Civilized Tears who went all the way up to 4th. This year the near misses are as follows: Derek Daisey, Jon Allen and Taylor Horn.
Top 20 songs of 2009
Here's the list of my favourite songs for this year. To be eligible for this, the song needs to be currently on the artist's Sellaband profile and I also impose a limit of one song per artist. The new requirement for this year is that the artist must either be currently fundraising or have reached their target in the last 12 months.
1. A few good men -Phil Tweed
2. Who do you find - Ulrik
3. Drive away - Matthew Ebel
4. Feel it down - MOPI
5. Drop dead girl - Mount Fabric
6. Words you bleed - Derek Daisey
7. Open her eyes - Silverimage
8. Bad habit - Voodoo Johnson
9. 7:30 plane - Matt Byers
10. January blues - The Lights
11. Dead man's suit - Jon Allen
12. Love called me home - The Jade Diary
13. The universe is burning - Marc Supsic
14. My enemy - Silver and Blue
15. The comedown (we are not saints) - We Love The Underground
16. Country storm - Aly Cook
17. Death clock - Conflict in the Sky
18. Candy whore - Six Eyes Lost
19. Back up - Taylor Horn
20. Take me - Broken Sun
Sadly a few of the artists on this list appear to be going inactive, which is a real shame. You'll find all the listed songs in my playlist until February, when I'll revert to a playlist which only contains fundraising artists. Most interesting in this top twenty list is probably either Mount Fabric, as I feel this particular song is one of the flashes of genius that occasionally pop up from the often quite mediocre I've heard from that direction, or Silver and Blue who are so new on the site I haven't even had the opportunity to mention them in a hatchet day post yet.
Dropped the ball
Here's my list of artists who I think have real music potential, but look like they're in the process of dropping the ball.
1. Matt Byers
2. Silverimage
3. Voodoo Johnson
Amazingly Matt still seems to be listed on Sellaband despite all the site changes and the fact I mentioned him in this category last year as having not been seen for ages round the site. The last seen date on his profile is still listed as unknown. Silverimage left a message on their own wall back in August mentioning that not only were they having problems with the site, but there was also a split in progress. Voodoo Johnson also haven't been seen around the site in more than 3 months now so the question of whether they're actually interested in fundraising any more is coming to the fore. It will be interesting to see if any of these recover or disappear over the next few months.
Sellaband albums
What's my favourite of the albums produced so far? Just a top 5 here as there's still a relatively small number to choose from. The main factor deciding the order is how much I like the tracks on an album and therefore how likely I'd have been to go out and buy it if I'd heard it first.
1. Arm Yourself - BulletProof Messenger
2. Circles and Squares - Francis Rodino
3. In Control - Nemesea
4. The Elements - Second Person
5. Until the Morning Light - Daniel Ward-Murphy
So interestingly, no change from last year, although I have to make special mention for Unseen by Ellie Williams at this point, as I think it's easily the best Sellaband album Tony Platt has produced to date and shows exactly why he's considered a world class producer. So from a personal point of view, whilst I have a lower liking for the songs themselves than I do for those of some other artists, I'd still say this album is highly recommended as not to be missed due to its quality.
I also got surprised by one of the album releases this year, as it contained a derivative work of a very well known song. I say derivative, because while the lyrics had been altered, the song itself was the same (just the artist's own interpretation as opposed to a straight copy). Interestingly the artist in question had had the cover (i.e. exactly the same song but with its original lyrics) on their page when they were fundraising. I'm slightly surprised Sellaband let this one through given the terms and conditions under which this album was produced, particularly as the last time I looked, the original composer was still alive, so here's hoping the correct dues have indeed been paid. Meanwhile, I'll leave you to try and work out for yourselves which artist I'm referring to.
Disappointments of the year
1. Vegas Dragons
Let me take you off sideways first by talking about Cubworld raising his 50K (trust me, the relevance will become clear by the end). When you consider that when Jake originally signed up to the site, he was just an airport baggage handler who sang songs for his wife and kids, the idea of giving someone like that 50K to make an album and therefore effectively get started in the music industry from nothing is like handing them a ten tonne ball and telling them they need to carry it to a finish line that's an infinite distance away. And despite starting from nothing, as soon as he was given it I've seen him try and pick that ball up and carry it, or even effectively just keep pushing and shoving, trying to roll it on the ground towards that finish line. It's fair to say he's still an infinite distance away, but equally you can see that having been given that ball, he has both moved and is still trying to keep moving. You'll find out the full story in my hatchet day post, but this is just part of the reason why Cubworld became only the second artist on my belief list to see a parts increase since the site change - the fact that he's making that effort deserves respect.
But you might be wondering where the relevance of Cubworld to Vegas Dragons is. If you know the history you shouldn't be, because you should be aware that the story behind Vegas Dragons also means a ten tonne ball effectively got handed out in that direction as well. And as one of those doing a large part of the handing, you could say I've had a vested interest in trying to help out beyond handing over my part of that particular 50K.
So it was when I was writing the "review of the year" blog this time last year, that I noticed the Vegas Dragons website had gone offline. For those who don't know the story, when Brian first joined the site, there was no Vegas Dragons website. Not only did I create the site for him free of charge using my limited knowledge and experience, but I also paid for the first year of hosting (which turned out to be 18 months in the end, due to the special offer on at the time). I also rethemed the site to match Lovingly Cruel on its release (again for free) and indeed would probably have continued to maintain it for as long as he wanted, providing he just picked up the hosting tab. Towards the end of December last year is when the money I'd paid ran out and I contacted Brian to let him know (despite the fact the reminder e-mail that the site was due for renewal would have been sent straight to him anyway). The bill has never been paid. And like any independent web developer worth their salt, I still have a backup of the site, so it wouldn't exactly have been hard (and indeed still isn't) to get the site back working again - seriously, how hard is it to pay one small bill?. Add to this some of the other things that need to be done and still haven't, and it soon becomes clear that when it comes to dealing with ten tonne balls, Cubworld and Vegas Dragons are a world apart. And perhaps a second lesson to be learned as well - that despite the best will in the world and the support of others, there does come a point where artists have to wake up and realise it's no use waiting for things to happen, you actually have to do something yourself rather than expect that others will do everything for you. Don't get me wrong, there's still a friendship there - it's just a highly frustrating situation when it's known and agreed what needs to be done, but it just doesn't happen. So if you're wondering what happened to the Vegas Dragons website, that's the story behind that particular disappearance. And if you think carefully, maybe this story can also go some way towards explaining just part of the reason behind my own changes in parts buying as time has passed, and hence why I have a certain reluctance these days to jump in and support, even when I see something that I think has potential.
2. Sellaband
Probably no surprise here, but some of the reasons for my own disappointment may be a little bit different from what you might expect. I could probably write an entire blog on this subject alone, but let's keep it simple with a summary list of the more important ones in no particular order.
- failure to maintain "housekeeping" of inactive profiles - this was only done for a couple of months before the June site change, and we've been back at the bad old days of them not deleting inactive ones, or removing artists who are stating on their profiles they've left the site since.
- coming up with a confusing and complicated incentive/plan system which seems to be just as complicated and confusing for artists to get changed. Even artists are struggling to know how to fill this in to make sense, never mind the poor believers who have to try and interpret what everything really means themselves now. Sorting out those with good intentions from the (often total) idiots is a nightmare as a result.
- failure to enforce section 5.5 in the current fundraising terms and conditions. Just go back over the blogs I've posted since the last site change and look at the "help I'm lost" part of the section I have dealing with artist plans. Despite some of these plans being more than 2 months old now, they still don't conform to this section of the T&C and Sellaband appear to be doing nothing to rectify the situation. This is also only the tip of an ever increasing iceberg as far as this particular problem is concerned.
- no Sellabration. 2009 was probably the last chance I would have been able to do some travelling (particularly abroad) for a while and I'd been aiming to go. It's unlikely I'll be getting out much this year, even if it does return.
- isolation rather than fostering of community. I remember mentioning in last year's blog that I feared this was the way they were heading and it looks like that fear came true.
I may still be listening to and following interesting new music on the site, but is it really any wonder that even I have become somewhat apathetic as far as believing in artists is concerned?
And you shouldn't be surprised that I don't mention ArenaFest in that particular list. After all, who described it in an earlier blog post as "looking like a big if"? So whatever the story behind its failure to occur, it should be obvious that the fact it didn't happen was obviously not an entirely unexpected possibility to me, and hence couldn't be that much of a source of disappointment as a result.
3. Believers
A slightly misleading title perhaps. One thing this year of disruption on Sellaband has given me is a time to reflect on the "good old days" when I used to talk to other believers and artists on Skype, or could be found trading comments with others on their pages. But if it wasn't for "Mr Silver Balls" himself (i.e. UBG) I'd be inclined to think I'm the earliest active believer left. Particularly distressing to me was to discover the apparent loss of Dolly. The first I noticed something was wrong was when I discovered the music interests she had on her page had been replaced with some philosophy about the dangers of herd behaviour. If you visit her page today, it's gone - the photos, everything in fact except for the fact her "about me" is now populated by the following quote from Henry David Thoreau. “Men profess to be lovers of music, but for the most part they give no evidence in their opinions and lives that they have heard it.” If you aren't familiar with Dolly, then let me tell you she is (or should that be was given the seeming disappearance) employed by Sellaband and has an appreciation of music that goes beyond the average. Musically, you got the sense that Dolly was dining on caviar while you had a tin of baked beans at hand. Not in a snobbish way, but rather for her appreciation of music as an art form rather than just your run-of-the-mill enjoyment that the average person has. To see a believer such as this go AWOL is probably the icing on the cake of the sadness I feel at seeing so many of the believers who were around with me in the early days drift away from the site, and it truly makes me wonder what the future holds if true supporters of music such as Dolly no longer have interest in the site.
The forgotten
As regular readers of my blog will know, it tends to be very long. As a result I often reach a stage where I intended to talk about someone or something and don't get around to it because the blog is already quite long. And often I intend to talk about it the next month as a result, but then find the same effectively happens again. So here are just some of those who ought to have been mentioned but weren't through lack of space.
NRG Rising
There's been more than one point when I ought to have written about these ladies, but somehow something else always worked its way further up in my memory. Probably the best reggae I've heard on the site since Alioune K decided to call it quits, although the demos themselves aren't the best in quality. I'll be interested to see what their first actual single sounds like, as whilst I'm not a huge reggae fan, I am currently keeping watch from a distance and will almost certainly take a better look at them once the budget raised figure starts to become that bit more serious.
M Harris
I had been hoping the arrival of Public Enemy might have a knock-on effect in this direction, but with rumours floating around that PE aren't even promoting their Sellaband profile on their current tour, this might be a long time in coming. There is also the question of what exactly a M Harris CD is going to sound like, given the current profile contents. I originally said a long time ago that it was obvious there was more to him than just rap, and now Sellaband is allowing more than 3 tracks on a profile the range starts to become that much clearer. On an artist where a track like "Do it" has me reaching for the skip button, but I could quite happily listen to something like "(ethnic)" for hours on end, it opens questions as to what exactly he is planning for a Sellaband album. Irrespective of whether it falls more towards the rap/hip-hop end or the jazz end of the range though, it seems neither are particularly popular amongst current believers.
Jon Allen
As one of several custom artists that came in at the same time, this turned out to be an artist I was extremely interested in but a combination of the high part price and its corresponding absurd plan/incentives put me off. With Amazon selling the album in question for less than 10 GBP, the only reasons to take an interest in the Sellaband profile were really those of the extra EP+download plus the concert ticket. And the problem with the concert ticket is of course the fact you'd really have to be in the UK to take advantage of that in the first place. Sadly a profile that therefore looked only of real interest to UK believers who didn't already own the album (which would presumably rule out most of his existing fanbase) and hence something which has held a sense of doom from the start, even without the low profile attendance.
The Fanclub
Well here's another interesting custom artist, and one that makes me wonder if we're now seeing the "custom promotion profile" appearing. There's always been a big question over artists who seemingly are using the site merely for promotion rather than having any genuine intention of raising a budget and the frustration it can bring to music lovers who are genuinely looking for someone who is genuinely interested too. So cue an artist who doesn't have a website (just a glorified e-mail signup) and whose management company doesn't have a website either (just a nice "under development" page) despite the fact they're quite happily mentioning all the experience they have on their myspace site. Roll forward a couple of months and recheck, and find that nothing has changed on this score, and what you have basically looks like a profile that's just on Sellaband for the promotion. Either that or their choice of signup time on Sellaband is bad, which let's face it, isn't that much of a recommendation for their management either.
Kompis is to this year's post what netvalar was to last year's. I always read the 50K music mag, but due to its timing I never tend to make any comment or post about it, because I'm either still writing my own blog post or busy taking a breather having just finished writing one. It doesn't mean I don't appreciate the effort though. In a world where Sellaband appear to have given up on community, it's always great to find there are still other believers still trying to do their bit to keep a spark alive. So this is me raising a glass to Kompis for his efforts in that direction.
And finally...
I'll be taking a short breather before my January hatchet day post. That means you should be able to expect that particular installment in about a week's time, when I'll hopefully be able to tell you the finish of the stories I've left ongoing here as well as give you a catch-up on the new artists of interest and my parts changes. Happy New year and here's hoping for a better 2010 on Sellaband than 2009 has been.
Tuesday, 22 December 2009
So you think you're ready for Sellaband?
So you're an independent artist and you think you're ready to raise funds for your project on Sellaband, rather than taking the traditional label route? Judging by the artists currently signing up, it's probably fair to say that actually, you're not. So whilst it may not be completely comprehensive, this is my guide to the absolute essentials you need if you're to have any kind of success on Sellaband.
Where are your believers going to come from?
This is the first and most important question you should be asking, and if you can't answer it, then you're not even ready to start thinking about the rest of what this blog post contains.
A common mistake artists make is that they think believers will magically appear from thin air and start throwing money at their Sellaband profile. It does happen occasionally, but at least 999 times out of 1000 you can guarantee it won't. You therefore need to get together a strategy for collecting believers or it's likely you'll remain stuck pretty close to $0.
The most important source of believers you have is your existing fanbase - make use of this. Even if people don't want to spend their $10 now, encourage them to sign up and "follow" you. This doesn't cost any money to do and is in fact no more different to signing up on the likes of Myspace or Facebook. This can have two benefits. Firstly, it shows other people who may be looking at your Sellaband profile that you have a number of other people who are interested in your project. Secondly, it gives you a group of people you can potentially work with at a later date to improve your visibility on the site. The idea here is a simple one. Once you have attracted a certain number of followers, let them know that you now have a a certain number of people who haven't believed yet, and offer them some incentive to do so now. If you get enough interest, you should be able to give yourself a push in the charts and hence get the interest of others who may not have looked at you before.
What do your (potential) believers want?
Having got a rough idea of how many believers you think you can get and from where, you then need to find out what those people are looking for. Again, with people from your existing fanbase this can potentially be quite easy to determine. (You do actually have a mailing list don't you?) Send out a questionnaire asking if they're happy with only a download, or whether they'd be looking for an album. Would they want revenue share? What kind of incentives would encourage them to buy more than one part? Basically get a feel for what is in the heads of your existing fans first to find out how many are genuinely interested. You need these people to show their support for you by buying parts, so be sure to find out what makes them tick! Existing fans who think you are worth supporting and are prepared to demonstrate that fact are a great help in convincing strangers to trust in you too.
In the case of existing believers on Sellaband who are probably encountering you for the first time, you need to do your research. Who actively posts on the forum? Who posts on the pages of other artists in a similar genre to you? (or even follows or believes in those artists) Are these people actually buying parts at this time? Is there any information on their profile page which might be of use? For further hints, you would also do well to read this blog post by another Sellaband believer. If you're really lucky some believers may come to you of their own accord, but to stand the best chance of getting believers already on Sellaband, you have to first learn how active they are and what they're interested in. That should give you some idea of how likely you are to attract believers already on Sellaband to start with. It's also important to remember that not every Sellaband believer is after the same thing, so you need to discover the size of your potential market.
Hint: When was the last time you spent $100 on an artist? When was the last time you spent $100 on an artist you had never heard of before? With any luck you'll realise from the answers to these questions that the incentive area you'll need to put most thought into is the 2-10 parts range as the majority of people who can be tempted into buying more than one part are unlikely to go higher than this unless they are existing die-hard fans.
You'll need all of the information above to help you set up your plan and budget. It sounds like a lot of work (and it is!) but in reality it's only the start of the groundwork you need to do in order to come up with a realistic budget and plan that will make you look interesting to potential believers.
Setting up the budget
Now you've been able to come up with some estimate of where your believers are going to come from, how many parts they might be looking to buy and what incentives will convince them to buy those parts, you have the extra information needed on a fan funding site to start working out your budget.
1. Recording costs
This is probably the easiest to determine for many artists, as it's likely they will have had at least some experience in a studio. Consider where you are going to record, mix and master, who you are going to use as a producer, how many songs you want to record, whether you need session musicians or any special equipment etc. If you're completely inexperienced, Sellaband have some guideline costs on the form you fill in for your artist project, but for a more accurate estimate you would probably be better getting the advice of a similar artist already on Sellaband who has recorded before. Ask around, most active artists are usually more than friendly and willing to share their experiences!
2. Believer costs
If you're looking at sending a CD to every believer, then don't forget to calculate postage costs for this. Additionally you need to consider any incentives which will need posting in this cost e.g. T-shirts, other CDs etc. As a rough guide postage within the same or neighbouring countries is likely to work out to about $2 for one CD or $5 for long-distance/abroad. However, remember that instead of shipping yourself, Sellaband can do some or all of the shipping for you, so it might also be worth investigating this option depending on the location of you and your believers. Depending on the system in use for calculating postage, larger quantities may work out slightly cheaper per unit unless the package is really large.
Hint: Don't forget that on a system of 1 CD per believer, if every believer were to buy two parts instead of just one, you would halve your potential postage costs. This is why getting believers to buy more than one part can be so important!
A hidden cost that many artists forget is one related to revenue share. If you are looking at sharing revenue with believers then you'll need at least basic bookkeeping skills, or preferably be looking to hire an accountant. Sellaband requires accounts to be sent to them every three months once your project is completed and delivered if you are sharing revenue so that they can administer the revenue sharing for believers. Whilst I'd hope that as an independent artist, you already have the services of an accountant for your annual taxes, it's important to remember this Sellaband requirement is likely to produce more work than your accountant would normally be doing.
3. Promotion/marketing costs
Are you planning to use any of the budget for marketing or promoting your project after it's completed? This is especially important to consider if you are sharing revenue - if people don't even know you have a product, how are you going to generate sales and hence that revenue? How many CDs (or extra CDs) are you going to produce as an initial run for your merch stand at shows, or for existing outlets who already sell your CDs? What about promo copies for radio stations etc.? And what about your website - do you already have someone who takes care of that for you, or are you going to be looking for someone to update or redesign it to better promote your project once it's completed?
4. Sellaband cost
Finally, don't forget to add 10% to the figure you've reached so far, as that is the fee Sellaband will take on completion.
Now you've got an initial budget estimate, it's time to run a reality check. For this purpose I'm going to assume you're on the standard $10 per part, but it's possible to adapt the calculation for other part prices. For every $10,000 of budget you are looking to raise, you should be planning to bring at least 100 of your existing friends/family/fans with you to help you get your project funded. Don't forget, Sellaband is a fan funding site - so if you don't have any of these people to call on, you probably shouldn't be looking at using it. If it's looking like the number of fans you need to bring is too high, then you'll need to revise your budget or incentives, or possibly look at funding some of the costs out of your own pocket instead of including them in your Sellaband budget.
Setting up your Sellaband account
Now all the groundwork is laid, you should have a set of incentives, a plan and a budget which gives you a chance of success, so it's finally time to create and set up your Sellaband profile.
1. Use the budget information you've gathered to help you fill in the initial signup form as many of these details are rather hard to get changed later without input from Sellaband.
2. Don't forget to include your biography, photos and preferably more than one song on your page. Links to other sites you appear on (e.g. myspace, your own website etc), videos of you performing or a list of upcoming shows can help too
3. Fill in your plan section. A good plan will generally include all the features I've already got you to consider, such as incentives, what is included in the project and how you plan to market it and a rough budget outline. For a good example check out this one from Aly Cook
4. Fill out the incentives section with the list of incentives you worked out, taking care to check this ties up with any relevant information in your plan. Discrepancies cause questions and too many questions often cause potential believers who have never encountered an artist before to walk away from such a profile without investing.
5. Make sure you have your genres filled in, or your profile will not be visible to people searching for artists on Sellaband.
Hint: Some information such as your plan and incentives section can be changed by Sellaband, even if you can't do so yourself, so contact them if you need to get those last few problems ironed out.
Time to promote
Once your profile is active, it will appear for a short time (generally up to a week) in the "Happening Now" section of the site. After this point, the most effective way to be noticed is to be appearing in the weekly charts or high up on the search. Existing believers are more likely to check out artists who are gaining budget, particularly on a regular basis, so try and get your existing fanbase moving to support you first, and it's likely more believers from Sellaband itself will join in automatically. Making your presence known by participating in discussions or asking questions on the forum can also help you gain some attention, but be very wary of how much self-promotion of your project you do both on the forum and believer/artist walls, as the line between making it known you exist and spamming can get crossed very easily. Basically try not to come across as a walking advert, but rather show your interest in others and what is going on around you and you're more likely to get some kind of positive reaction with a bit of patience.
Don't disappear! You should be looking to add something new to your profile (or change something on it) at least once a month. There are so many artists on Sellaband, that believers will quickly forget about you if you don't do enough to keep their interest, and even existing fans may not be enough to convince people you are still interested in fundraising on Sellaband.
Hint: Many believers on Sellaband are music lovers. That means that unless they get really hooked on your music (i.e. become "real" fans), they're only likely to take a passing interest in you on other sites. So if you don't put the effort in on Sellaband, it's very easy to get stuck or even lose support, unless you can keep convincing new people from outside of Sellaband to join to support you.
Finally, remember that this is only a guideline that can hopefully give you a fighting chance against all the other artists out there. Never forget, some artists can get luckier than others!
Where are your believers going to come from?
This is the first and most important question you should be asking, and if you can't answer it, then you're not even ready to start thinking about the rest of what this blog post contains.
A common mistake artists make is that they think believers will magically appear from thin air and start throwing money at their Sellaband profile. It does happen occasionally, but at least 999 times out of 1000 you can guarantee it won't. You therefore need to get together a strategy for collecting believers or it's likely you'll remain stuck pretty close to $0.
The most important source of believers you have is your existing fanbase - make use of this. Even if people don't want to spend their $10 now, encourage them to sign up and "follow" you. This doesn't cost any money to do and is in fact no more different to signing up on the likes of Myspace or Facebook. This can have two benefits. Firstly, it shows other people who may be looking at your Sellaband profile that you have a number of other people who are interested in your project. Secondly, it gives you a group of people you can potentially work with at a later date to improve your visibility on the site. The idea here is a simple one. Once you have attracted a certain number of followers, let them know that you now have a a certain number of people who haven't believed yet, and offer them some incentive to do so now. If you get enough interest, you should be able to give yourself a push in the charts and hence get the interest of others who may not have looked at you before.
What do your (potential) believers want?
Having got a rough idea of how many believers you think you can get and from where, you then need to find out what those people are looking for. Again, with people from your existing fanbase this can potentially be quite easy to determine. (You do actually have a mailing list don't you?) Send out a questionnaire asking if they're happy with only a download, or whether they'd be looking for an album. Would they want revenue share? What kind of incentives would encourage them to buy more than one part? Basically get a feel for what is in the heads of your existing fans first to find out how many are genuinely interested. You need these people to show their support for you by buying parts, so be sure to find out what makes them tick! Existing fans who think you are worth supporting and are prepared to demonstrate that fact are a great help in convincing strangers to trust in you too.
In the case of existing believers on Sellaband who are probably encountering you for the first time, you need to do your research. Who actively posts on the forum? Who posts on the pages of other artists in a similar genre to you? (or even follows or believes in those artists) Are these people actually buying parts at this time? Is there any information on their profile page which might be of use? For further hints, you would also do well to read this blog post by another Sellaband believer. If you're really lucky some believers may come to you of their own accord, but to stand the best chance of getting believers already on Sellaband, you have to first learn how active they are and what they're interested in. That should give you some idea of how likely you are to attract believers already on Sellaband to start with. It's also important to remember that not every Sellaband believer is after the same thing, so you need to discover the size of your potential market.
Hint: When was the last time you spent $100 on an artist? When was the last time you spent $100 on an artist you had never heard of before? With any luck you'll realise from the answers to these questions that the incentive area you'll need to put most thought into is the 2-10 parts range as the majority of people who can be tempted into buying more than one part are unlikely to go higher than this unless they are existing die-hard fans.
You'll need all of the information above to help you set up your plan and budget. It sounds like a lot of work (and it is!) but in reality it's only the start of the groundwork you need to do in order to come up with a realistic budget and plan that will make you look interesting to potential believers.
Setting up the budget
Now you've been able to come up with some estimate of where your believers are going to come from, how many parts they might be looking to buy and what incentives will convince them to buy those parts, you have the extra information needed on a fan funding site to start working out your budget.
1. Recording costs
This is probably the easiest to determine for many artists, as it's likely they will have had at least some experience in a studio. Consider where you are going to record, mix and master, who you are going to use as a producer, how many songs you want to record, whether you need session musicians or any special equipment etc. If you're completely inexperienced, Sellaband have some guideline costs on the form you fill in for your artist project, but for a more accurate estimate you would probably be better getting the advice of a similar artist already on Sellaband who has recorded before. Ask around, most active artists are usually more than friendly and willing to share their experiences!
2. Believer costs
If you're looking at sending a CD to every believer, then don't forget to calculate postage costs for this. Additionally you need to consider any incentives which will need posting in this cost e.g. T-shirts, other CDs etc. As a rough guide postage within the same or neighbouring countries is likely to work out to about $2 for one CD or $5 for long-distance/abroad. However, remember that instead of shipping yourself, Sellaband can do some or all of the shipping for you, so it might also be worth investigating this option depending on the location of you and your believers. Depending on the system in use for calculating postage, larger quantities may work out slightly cheaper per unit unless the package is really large.
Hint: Don't forget that on a system of 1 CD per believer, if every believer were to buy two parts instead of just one, you would halve your potential postage costs. This is why getting believers to buy more than one part can be so important!
A hidden cost that many artists forget is one related to revenue share. If you are looking at sharing revenue with believers then you'll need at least basic bookkeeping skills, or preferably be looking to hire an accountant. Sellaband requires accounts to be sent to them every three months once your project is completed and delivered if you are sharing revenue so that they can administer the revenue sharing for believers. Whilst I'd hope that as an independent artist, you already have the services of an accountant for your annual taxes, it's important to remember this Sellaband requirement is likely to produce more work than your accountant would normally be doing.
3. Promotion/marketing costs
Are you planning to use any of the budget for marketing or promoting your project after it's completed? This is especially important to consider if you are sharing revenue - if people don't even know you have a product, how are you going to generate sales and hence that revenue? How many CDs (or extra CDs) are you going to produce as an initial run for your merch stand at shows, or for existing outlets who already sell your CDs? What about promo copies for radio stations etc.? And what about your website - do you already have someone who takes care of that for you, or are you going to be looking for someone to update or redesign it to better promote your project once it's completed?
4. Sellaband cost
Finally, don't forget to add 10% to the figure you've reached so far, as that is the fee Sellaband will take on completion.
Now you've got an initial budget estimate, it's time to run a reality check. For this purpose I'm going to assume you're on the standard $10 per part, but it's possible to adapt the calculation for other part prices. For every $10,000 of budget you are looking to raise, you should be planning to bring at least 100 of your existing friends/family/fans with you to help you get your project funded. Don't forget, Sellaband is a fan funding site - so if you don't have any of these people to call on, you probably shouldn't be looking at using it. If it's looking like the number of fans you need to bring is too high, then you'll need to revise your budget or incentives, or possibly look at funding some of the costs out of your own pocket instead of including them in your Sellaband budget.
Setting up your Sellaband account
Now all the groundwork is laid, you should have a set of incentives, a plan and a budget which gives you a chance of success, so it's finally time to create and set up your Sellaband profile.
1. Use the budget information you've gathered to help you fill in the initial signup form as many of these details are rather hard to get changed later without input from Sellaband.
2. Don't forget to include your biography, photos and preferably more than one song on your page. Links to other sites you appear on (e.g. myspace, your own website etc), videos of you performing or a list of upcoming shows can help too
3. Fill in your plan section. A good plan will generally include all the features I've already got you to consider, such as incentives, what is included in the project and how you plan to market it and a rough budget outline. For a good example check out this one from Aly Cook
4. Fill out the incentives section with the list of incentives you worked out, taking care to check this ties up with any relevant information in your plan. Discrepancies cause questions and too many questions often cause potential believers who have never encountered an artist before to walk away from such a profile without investing.
5. Make sure you have your genres filled in, or your profile will not be visible to people searching for artists on Sellaband.
Hint: Some information such as your plan and incentives section can be changed by Sellaband, even if you can't do so yourself, so contact them if you need to get those last few problems ironed out.
Time to promote
Once your profile is active, it will appear for a short time (generally up to a week) in the "Happening Now" section of the site. After this point, the most effective way to be noticed is to be appearing in the weekly charts or high up on the search. Existing believers are more likely to check out artists who are gaining budget, particularly on a regular basis, so try and get your existing fanbase moving to support you first, and it's likely more believers from Sellaband itself will join in automatically. Making your presence known by participating in discussions or asking questions on the forum can also help you gain some attention, but be very wary of how much self-promotion of your project you do both on the forum and believer/artist walls, as the line between making it known you exist and spamming can get crossed very easily. Basically try not to come across as a walking advert, but rather show your interest in others and what is going on around you and you're more likely to get some kind of positive reaction with a bit of patience.
Don't disappear! You should be looking to add something new to your profile (or change something on it) at least once a month. There are so many artists on Sellaband, that believers will quickly forget about you if you don't do enough to keep their interest, and even existing fans may not be enough to convince people you are still interested in fundraising on Sellaband.
Hint: Many believers on Sellaband are music lovers. That means that unless they get really hooked on your music (i.e. become "real" fans), they're only likely to take a passing interest in you on other sites. So if you don't put the effort in on Sellaband, it's very easy to get stuck or even lose support, unless you can keep convincing new people from outside of Sellaband to join to support you.
Finally, remember that this is only a guideline that can hopefully give you a fighting chance against all the other artists out there. Never forget, some artists can get luckier than others!
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